A major bug had been plaguing Windows 10 Insider Preview users who were used to browsing the internet via 64-bit versions of Chrome, which caused the browser to crash almost instantaneously on build 10525. While Microsoft overlooked that particular issue, and failed to caution users regarding the problem, Neowin conveyed some workarounds to resolve the bug.
Meanwhile, Google who was also working on fixing the notorious issue, has now fixed it, stating that there will be "no future work on it," but if the problem persists, the company might "revisit" its decision. A member of Google's team says:
I'm going to closing this out for comments, since the specific issue here is fixed and there will be no future work on this bug. For the small number of people asking why Chrome checks signatures on the 64-bit sys call stubs, it's because doing so significantly mitigates issues from third-party software hooking inside Chrome's sandboxed processes. Whereas on 32-bit Windows we're forced to use much more permissive hooking, and as a result we see far more issues due to malfunctioning third-party software such as AV or other utilities that: break ASLR, leak privileged objects, or just introduce general instability that leads to very high crash rates inside our sandboxed processes.
We will continue to track the impact of our 64-bit sys call stub validation, and if we see significant conflicts in the future we can revisit our decision. But for now, our crash report data supports the position that the strict validation is providing a real end-user benefit in terms of stability and security.
In a previous post, Google cautioned Windows Insiders to think twice before using builds from the Fast ring if they don't want to encounter "temporary breakage" like these in the future.
While the bug has been fixed, and build 10525 users shouldn't be facing any more problems with 64-bit flavors of Chrome, the scenario isn't all good for Windows 10 customers, as Google has stated that it will not integrate its browser with the Action Center, citing that "it would create a weird state where Chrome behaves differently on Win 10 than on Win 7/8 and developers of extensions/websites wouldn't know what they design for."
To start browsing again with the 64-bit version of Chrome, you will need to be in the beta channel and have already updated the browser to version 45.0.2454.78 beta-m (64-bit).
Source: Chrome Issue Tracker via Windows Central |Google Image via Shuttershock
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