Jan 10, 2011 15:00 GMT  ·  By

Google has made available for download and testing the third update to the Chrome Beta Channel in 2011.

Users running Windows and Linux can now grab Google Chrome Beta Build 9.0.597.45, with Anthony Laforge, Google Chrome PM noting that Chrome Frame Beta was also refreshed.

Build 9.0.597.45 supersedes the Chrome Beta release made available for download the past week.

When it updated the Beta channel to 9.0.597.44 for Windows on January 5th, the Mountain View-based search giant also disabled sandboxing for Flash.

As early adopters testing Chrome 9.0 already know, the browser includes the Adobe Flash Player by default in an effort to make it simpler for users to enjoy Flash content on the web, without being required to download, install and update the plug-in separately from the browser.

In this regard, since the technology is now an integral part of Google Chrome, the search giant sandboxed it, namely isolated it from the rest of the browser for security purposes.

This means that even for successful exploits of Flash it will be virtually impossible to use Chrome as an avenue to compromise the underlying operating system.

The move was temporary, just as Google promised, and testers are no longer required to leverage --enable-flash-sandbox in order to turn Flash Player sandboxing back on.

However, while Flash Player sandboxing has indeed been restored, two additional features were temporarily disabled.

LaForge explained that both accelerated compositing and WebGL have been moved behind flags. Google explained that as it was the case for disabling Flash Player sandboxing, this too is a temporary measure.

Testers can use --enable-accelerated-compositing and --enable-webgl in order to switch the two features on.

Just right click the Chrome 9.0.597.45 Beta icon, select Properties, and add either --enable-accelerated-compositing or --enable-webgl to the end of the Target address in order to enable accelerated compositing and WebGL, respectively.

Google Chrome for Windows is available for download here. Google Chrome for Linux is available for download here. Google Chrome for Mac is available for download here.