Download Google Chrome 5.0.342.8 Beta for Windows

Google finally updated the Chrome beta channel on Windows after both the Mac and the Linux builds had come out. Google Chrome 5.0.342.8 Beta is the first beta from the 5.x series for Windows. The version number is now in line with the releases on the other platforms. Most of the new features, like the auto translation toolbar, had already been available on the platform in the Chrome 4.1 Beta. The new release also comes with a couple of security fixes.

"Google Chrome 5.0.342.8 has been released to the Beta channel on Windows," Mark Larson from the Google Chrome team wrote. "There's not much to report because most of the features were released previously in Chrome 4.1. This release does have an option in the Under the Hood section to let you disable automatic translations," he added.

With this release, the Google Chrome Beta channel is now in sync across all three platforms supported. Linux and Mac builds had advanced to Chrome 5.0 but the Windows beta branched off with Chrome 4.1. While some of the features in 5.0 were made available in 4.1, there were differences between builds.

The automatic translation toolbar, for example, had been available in the Windows Beta for several weeks but was only introduced on Linux and Mac this week. The new detailed privacy options followed the same path. Finally, the latest Chrome beta comes with a revamped Reload functionality enabling users to force a site to reload resources from the server by pressing Shift+Reload.

The following security vulnerabilities have been fixed in Google Chrome 5.0.342.8 Beta:
· Low: Don’t store non-text fields in the local Web Data database. Credit to Florian Rienhardt, BSI.
· High: Certificate checking error. Credit to Hironori Bono and Adam Langley of the Chromium development community. This vulnerability only affected the Linux build.


Google Chrome 5.0.342.8 Beta is available for download here on Softpedia.