Google has corrupted Google Chrome on thousands of office computers. In the stable version of Chrome without warning, an experimental feature has been enabled. Most users did not feel this, but in office environments Chrome was usable.
A silent Google experiment
Google silently enabled WebContents Occlusion. This feature suspends Chrome browser tabs if they are obstructed by other program windows. In assumptions, it saves computer resources when the browser is not in use. The setting has been available in Chrome editions for about 5 months. What could go wrong?
Google had to admit that he switched the flag in the stable version of the browser. It turned out that WebContents Occlusion also responds to launch on a remote desktop – for example, in the Citrix environment, commonly used in companies. Thousands of employees saw a white Chrome browser window (versions 77 and 78). The administrators spread their hands. In the meantime, no update was released and no one knew what had changed in the program.
Google quickly rolled back the changes. David Bienvenu explained that earlier this feature was already running on computers about 1 percent. Google Chrome users. No one has reported problems so far. The programmer promised that the experiment would not continue until the problem with Citrix was resolved.
Wasted time and money
Google unfortunately wasted the time and resources of IT departments and caused downtime by tens of thousands of people. Systems managers have tried to find a solution to the problem for up to 2 days, which they write about in the comments under the bug report.
Google should ensure that we can unsubscribe from such tests. You can't turn off work tools for thousands of people just because someone wanted to test new features. That's what the beta channel is for, not other companies.
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