Tag Archives: UI

Avoiding Unexpected Navigation

For over twenty years, browsers broadly supported two features that were often convenient but sometimes accidentally invoked, leading to data loss. The first feature was that hitting backspace would send the user back one page in their navigation history. This was convenient for those of us who keep our hands on the keyboard, but couldContinue reading “Avoiding Unexpected Navigation”

Bypassing AppProtocol Prompts

Starting in Microsoft Edge 77 (and Chrome 77), the prompt shown when launching an AppProtocol from the browser was changed to remove the “Always allow” checkbox. That change was made, in large part, because this prompt is the only thing standing between every arbitrary site on the Internet (loaded inside your browser’s sandbox) and aContinue reading “Bypassing AppProtocol Prompts”

Edge EV UI Requires SmartScreen

A user recently noticed that when loading Paypal.com in Microsoft Edge, the UI shown was the default HTTPS UI (a gray lock): Instead of the fancier “green” UI shown for servers that present Extended Validation (EV) certificates: The user observed this on some Windows 10 machines but not others. The variable that differed between those machines wasContinue reading “Edge EV UI Requires SmartScreen”

Security UI in Chrome

The combined address box and search bar at the top of the Chrome window is called the omnibox. The icon and optional verbose state text adjacent to that icon are collectively known as the Security Chip: The security chip can render in a number of states, depending on the status of the page: Secure –Continue reading “Security UI in Chrome”