Chrome boosts Security with Instant Startup Safety Checks

Google is testing a new feature in the Canary version to boost Chrome’s security. With this update, the Safety Check feature kicks in the moment you launch the browser, instantly scanning for any security issues and alerting you with recommended actions right away.

Chrome’s Safety Check proactively scans your browser for security and privacy issues. It warns you if saved passwords have been compromised, reminds you to update for the latest security fixes, and alerts you to malicious extensions. It also helps control site notifications and removes permissions from unused sites.

How to run Safety check in Chrome

1. Open Chrome
2. Visit Privacy and security
3. Click “Go to Safety check”

Chrome’s Safety check Startup feature

Google is now ensuring Safety checks run immediately when you launch Chrome. With a new experimental feature tested behind the flag, “Safety hub services are created on startup, enabling its checks to start right away.

Here is how to enable instant safety checks in Chrome:

1. Launch Chrome Canary
2. Visit Chrome://flags
3. Find and enable “Create Safety Hub services on start up“
4. Restart Chrome.

This ensures users are always aware of their browser’s security status and can take action promptly. The feature also provides recommendations under the privacy and security section to help users keep their settings optimized.

The Chromium Gerrit commit message reveals that the Safety checks startup improvement, already available on Chrome for Android, is now being applied to the desktop version as well.

Apart from this, Chrome is gaining the ability to search and edit text in scanned PDFs. Additionally, Google is preparing Omnibox extensions with more control over input in the address bar, further improving the browsing experience.