Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Google's decision to hide the start of website URLs from Chrome's omnibox was a little controversial. While replacing https://www. and http://www. with icons indicating whether the site was secure or not, many people preferred being about to see that the HTTPS protocol is being used through the presence of those five letters.

If you're one of these people, there's some good news: Google seems to have been listening. Having previously implemented an experimental option to show full URLs on a one-off basis, preview builds of Chrome for macOS, Windows and Linux have a new "Always show full URLs" option.

Avast-owned Piriform is best known for its CCleaner software, a tool designed to help you clear out the crap from your computer. Now, after a preview period, the company has launched the Chromium-based CCleaner Browser 80.0.

Promising "no ads, no tracking, no junk[and] built-in security" CCleaner Browser is billed as a fast browser that gives users easy-to-use privacy tools that help to reduce digital footprints.

Microsoft has released KB4052623, an update that addresses an issue with Windows Defender that was preventing scans from running properly.

While a workaround had been suggested by some, now there is an official fix available which should banish the "Windows Defender skipped an item due to exclusions or network protection settings" error message.

If you've used any version of Window before Windows 10, you'll definitely be familiar with the Control Panel. It's still present in Windows 10, but with various updates to the operating system Microsoft has been gradually encouraging people to use only the Settings app.

With just about every update to Windows 10, the prominence of the Control Panel has been reduced to the point that it's a bit of a chore to get to. According to references found in Windows 10 insider Build 19587, Microsoft could be on the verge of hiding or removing the Control Panel completely, or at least elements of it.

Stop us if you think you've heard this one before, but Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is warning customers to install a critical patch to stop certain SSD models from dying after 40,000 hours of use.

With echoes of a flaw that was revealed in November that caused drives to fail after 32,768 hours, HPE advises its customers to install a critical firmware upgrade if they use one of several SAS Solid State Drive models. The firm predicts that no drives should fail until October 2020 -- so there's plenty of time to act -- but it is still important to take action.

There are numerous technology companies that have agreed to offer their services for free as the world tries to tackle the coronavirus crisis, and others who have taken steps to reduce their strain on the internet. Tomorrow, #BuildforCOVID19 Global Online Hackathon kicks off, with many of the big names from the world of tech coming together to tackle some of the problems COVID-19 presents.

There are also numerous partners from the health community, including the World Health Organization, and the aim is to come up with software solutions that can be used to improve health and hygiene, help with social isolation, assist in education, and help businesses stay afloat.

Microsoft is putting Windows 10 into coronavirus lockdown. The company has announced that from May it will only be releasing security updates for the operating system, as it puts all optional updates on pause.

New versions of Edge have already been put on hold and it is little surprise that, in light of coronavirus, Microsoft is choosing to focus its energy on the updates that matter the most. The decision means that no more so-called "optional C and D releases" will be release from May.

With a huge proportion of the world now in lockdown as governments take steps to stop the spread of coronavirus, millions of people are seeking ways to entertain themselves at home... and Pornhub has come up with a solution.

Having previously made its premium services available for free in Italy, Spain and France, the site says that it wants to "lend a hand". Looking to give people "an enjoyable way to pass the time", Pornhub Premium is now available to everyone around the world for free... for a while, at least.

Having amassed millions of customers in Europe, the British fintech Revolut is bringing its banking app and debit cards to the US.

The official launch comes after nine months of beta testing and has been facilitated by Revolut's partnership with Metropolitan Commercial Bank (MCB). While Revolut is not a bank, it offers many services including the ability to receive salary payments to your account, fee-free currency exchange, and a polished mobile app for easy money management.

Yesterday we wrote about a bug in Windows Defender, seemingly introduced by a recent update. Only affecting Windows 10, the bug causes some virus scans to fail, and in others a somewhat unhelpful message informs users that there were unspecified "items skipped during scan".

The error message goes on to make reference to scanning exclusions as well as network scanning settings, and it is here that a simple solution has been found.

Microsoft has warned that all versions of Windows feature critical unpatched RCE vulnerabilities. The security problems stem from the Windows Adobe Type Manager Library, and relates to the parsing of fonts.

The company is working on a fix which will be released when the next Patch Tuesday rolls around -- but for Windows 7 users, despite the critical nature of the bugs, it is only those who have paid for an ESU licence that will get the security update. There is a bit of good news, however. While the vulnerability is yet to be patched, there is a workaround available that will do the job for the time being.

There are a lot of VPN services to choose from these days, and a lot of reasons for wanting to use one. But there is the matter of money to consider. Whether you're strapped for cash, or just want to give a VPN a serious test drive before committing to it, the more generous the free data allowance the better.

hide.me is one of many VPNs that offers a free package, and it has just announced that the data allowance for people on this tier has increased fivefold. The increase to 10GB per month is generous, but the way the free tier works means that you actually get an unlimited amount of VPN traffic for free.

The effects of the coronavirus pandemic are widespread and varied across the tech world. Streaming video services have been reducing quality to ease the strain on the internet, support for old versions of Windows has been extended, and many brand-new cinema releases have been pirated earlier than normal.

In addition to delaying the end of support for Windows 10 version 1709, Microsoft also says that the COVID-19 crisis will impact on the development of its Edge browser. This means that Edge 80 is the last stable build we're going to see for a while.

Microsoft's run of problematic updates for Windows 10 continues. This time an update is causing an issue that could have serious security implications for users -- it has broken Windows Defender.

While the Windows Defender security tool is included in Windows 7 and 8 the problem only affects Windows 10. Many people are finding that when they perform a virus scan, an error message is displayed that reads: "Items skipped during scan. The Windows Defender Antivirus scan skipped an item due to an exclusion or network scanning settings". For others, scans simply fail after a few moments.

If you've been searching for Kodi using Google, you will have noticed that the media playing software has vanished from search results.

The banishment comes after a DMCA takedown request from the Turkish pay-TV service Digiturk. Owned by the beIN Media Group, the DMCA takedown request related not only to the content of a pirated stream, but to the use of a copyrighted logo on suc ha sstream.