Chrome 10 brings Flash sandboxing and new settings UI

Google has issued a new stable release of the Chrome Web browser and is rolling it out to users. The new version introduces some noteworthy JavaScript performance enhancements, new plug-in security features, improved support for synchronization, and a new user interface for managing the browser's settings.

Plug-ins have historically been a major attack vector for Internet malware—particularly Adobe's Flash and Acrobat plug-ins, which are notoriously insecure. Rather than seriously addressing the issue, Adobe has capitalized on the poor security of its own software by bundling unwanted McAfee crapware in Flash and Acrobat updates.

Chrome 10 introduces support for Flash sandboxing, which is now enabled by default on Windows Vista and Windows 7. The feature, which attempts to limit Flash's access to sensitive system functionality, is one of several key plug-in security features that Google has delivered since it started collaborating with Adobe almost a year ago. Chrome 10 has also gained support for selective plug-in blocking and automatically blocking out-of-date plug-ins.

A new settings panel introduced in Chrome 10 offers a big usability boost. Instead of displaying its settings in a native-looking dialog window, the browser now shows its settings in a regular tab with a more web-like presentation. It's a cleaner and more intuitive layout that is also consistent across operating systems.

Google has continued to advance Chrome's sophisticated JavaScript engine. The latest optimizations in Chrome 10—which incorporate Google's "crankshaft" technology—reportedly produce a 66 percent improvement in the browser's score on Google's own benchmark. This performance increase is largely confined to complex JavaScript use cases where there is a lot of repetitious activity under the hood.

Users can download Chrome 10 directly from Google's website. The new version is already being rolled out to existing users through Chrome's update system.