Security News > 2021 > January > Google Chrome fixes antivirus 'file locking' bug on Windows 10

Google Chrome has fixed a bug that enabled antivirus programs on Windows 10 to lock newly created files.
The patching of the bug means antivirus programs running on Windows would no longer block new files generated by the Chrome web browser, such as bookmarks.
On Windows 10 machines, in particular, this created issues for the Google Chrome web browser when it would use `ImportantFileWriter` to output certain files.
This meant Windows 10 users would experience issues trying to save bookmarks, for example, due to the web browser having difficulty creating the corresponding file.
As first reported by Windows Latest this week, a recent enhancement made by the Chromium project lets the Chrome web browser run smoothly on Windows 10, even when antivirus tools are enabled.
The fix published to Chromium's Google Source codebase resolves this bug by retrying the execution of ReplaceFile method multiple times to overcome the possible race condition in which an antivirus program takes control of a file being simultaneously accessed by Chrome.
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