1. Firefox 146 with Backup Function and Post-Quantum Cryptography

• Data Security for Windows 10
• Native Wayland Scaling and Quantum Cryptography
• Accessibility and Other New Features

Mozilla has released Firefox 146 for all platforms. The update brings numerous new features, including an automatic backup function for Windows 10, a dedicated GPU process for macOS, and support for post-quantum cryptography. Mozilla is rolling out some features gradually to gather early feedback and fix bugs quickly.

Data Security for Windows 10

With the new backup function, Windows 10 users can automatically back up their passwords, bookmarks, and other browser data. The data is stored daily on their own device and can optionally be encrypted with a password. The backup can be restored when reinstalling Firefox on any operating system. Mozilla plans to provide the function for other operating systems in the future. Windows 10 is no longer supported, so many affected users currently have to switch to Windows 11 or another system like macOS or Linux. With the new backup function, personal browser data can be easily migrated.

For macOS users, Firefox 146 brings a dedicated GPU process that includes WebGPU, WebGL, and Mozilla’s own WebRender. The separate process ensures that severe errors in the graphics code no longer crash the entire browser. Instead, only the GPU process is restarted while the browser continues to run.

Mozilla is also opening Firefox Labs to all desktop users, regardless of whether they participate in studies or transmit telemetry data. Previously, access to experimental features was tied to these conditions. With this change, significantly more users can now test new features before their official release.

Native Wayland Scaling and Quantum Cryptography

On Linux, Firefox 146 now natively supports fractional scaling on Wayland displays. This improves the display quality on high-resolution screens with non-integer scaling factors. Previously, Firefox had to fall back to the Xorg compatibility mode, which could lead to blurry rendering. The important Linux desktops Gnome and KDE will fully rely on Wayland in the future.

In the area of security, Firefox 146 implements ML-KEM (Module-Lattice-Based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism) for WebRTC. The browser now sends a post-quantum key exchange during the DTLS-1.3 handshake. ML-KEM is considered secure against attacks with future quantum computers and is part of the new generation of cryptographic methods.

Accessibility and Other New Features

The accessibility features have been significantly expanded. The time picker for HTML input fields of type time and datetime-local now offers full keyboard and screen reader support. In addition, the color dialog in the settings has been revised: the color picker now displays each color field directly next to its corresponding label, making it easier to use with screen magnifiers.

Users in the EU and some other countries can now optionally activate a weather function in the new tab. They can choose whether the location should be automatically detected or manually entered. For English-language Firefox versions in Germany, France, and Italy, the address bar also displays suggestions for holidays and important dates.

For web developers, Firefox 146 brings support for the CSS function contrast-color(), which automatically calculates contrasting colors, and for the CSS at-rule @scope, which allows styles to be restricted to DOM subtrees. In addition, WebCrypto now supports compressed elliptic curve points, which nearly halve the size of public keys.

Mozilla has discontinued support for Direct2D on Windows. Users who still rely on Direct2D must switch to Firefox ESR 140.0 or higher. Users can review all changes in the Release Notes. The Enterprise version of Firefox 146 also includes specific policy updates and bug fixes for corporate customers.

(fo)

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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.