HttpWatch Version History

Version 16.2.2

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 10:02:15 GMT

Changed: Updated help documentation to match recent updates and changes

Version 16.2.1

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 13:42:15 GMT

New: HttpWatch Studio and Chrome/Edge windows have new distinctive icons, with a red dot or empty circle showing whether the browser HttpWatch window is recording or stopped
New: Redesigned Windows Explorer icons for HWL and HAR files
New: Taskbar previews for Chrome and Edge now provide Record, Clear, Stop and Save buttons
New: The HttpWatch Studio taskbar menu now has an option to open a HWL or HAR log file
Improved: Live request and page timings are now derived solely from Chromium event timestamps
Improved: Tooltips now explain more Chromium network errors, including blocked requests, timeouts, connection resets, DNS failures and certificate errors
Improved: Setup and the uninstaller now return specific exit codes for identifiable failures. Silent installs fail with exit code 32 when files are in use instead of scheduling changes for the next reboot. Automated scripts should use that code instead of checking for httpwatch_reboot.txt
Fixed: HTML response fragments could be incorrectly displayed as XML in the Content pane
Fixed: Setup could report an in-use error when writing the HttpWatch Studio Start Menu shortcut

Version 16.1.8

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT

New: A list of recently opened log files is displayed in the Windows task bar and start menu next to the HttpWatch Studio icon
Improved: The display of binary content, such as WOFF fonts, in the Content tab has been improved
Improved: HttpWatch Basic can now be uninstalled silently using winget
Improved: The winget install package for HttpWatch now supports --scope user and --scope machine
Changed: If the installer is started using the local system account (e.g. by an automated software management tool), the installation will be for all users on the machine regardless of the value of the /all-users flag.
Changed: Page groups are now always displayed in chronological order rather than by the sort column in the HttpWatch plugin for Chrome and Edge. The requests within each page group are still sorted by the selected sort column. This change makes it easier to find where new requests are being saved. The ordering in HttpWatch Studio remains the same - page groups are sorted by the selected sort column (e.g. URL or Bytes Sent)
Updated: The latest CRX files for the Chrome and Edge extensions are installed with HttpWatch
Fixed: A crash could occur in HttpWatch while recording when cookies were assigned in certain types of iframe or in about:blank
Fixed: A DeleteRows error could occur in HttpWatch when collapsing a page group
Fixed: An access denied message could occur during installation for the current user

Version 16.1.7

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Fixed: an 'abnormal termination error' could occur when installing HttpWatch

Version 16.1.6

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT

New: HttpWatch can now be installed without administrator rights for the current user only
New: To install for all users on the machine, run the installer with the /all-users=1 command line option
Fixed: the uninstaller did not remove all HttpWatch items from the Windows Start menu

Version 16.1.3

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 12:00:00 GMT

New: HttpWatch can now be installed without administrator rights for the current user only
New: To install for all users on the machine, run the installer with the /all-users=1 command line option
Fixed: the uninstaller did not remove all HttpWatch items from the Windows Start menu

Version 16.0.20

Thu, 09 Jul 2026 15:00:30 GMT

Fixed: A 'log not started' error could occur when clicking the console button

Version 16.0.15

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Fixed: A 'Not implemented' error could occur when using the Find window

Version 16.0.14

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Improved: HttpWatch can now continue recording when third-party extensions, such as iCloud Passwords, attempt to inject UI elements into a web page. Previously, this could cause a target_closed error and stop recording
Fixed: During auto-recording, log files were not written if a browser tab was closed or if recording stopped after navigating to a restricted page, e.g. the browser’s extensions page
Updated: The HttpWatchForEdge.crx and HttpWatchForChrome.crx files have been updated to the latest version

Version 16.0.11

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Fixed: The main request grid now scrolls correctly using the mousewheel when a data tip is displayed in the URL column
Updated: The HttpWatchForEdge.crx file has been updated to the latest version
Changed: The API sample code is now available on GitHub in https://github.com/HttpWatch/api-examples and is no longer installed in the HttpWatch program folder

Version 16.0.9

Fri, 22 May 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Fixed: An HttpWatch process could be left in the background after all browser windows were closed - forcing a reboot when installing a new version
Fixed: Negative timing offsets could occur when using automatic recording
Updated: The installer now includes the latest CRX files for the extensions in the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge stores

Version 16.0.7

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Fixed: An 'IsWindow' error could occur when opening HttpWatch

Version 16.0.6

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Fixed: A 'Log start time' error could occur when viewing the summary tab

Version 16.0.5

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 09:00:00 GMT

New: JavaScript cookie activity is now captured and displayed as events in the Console window
New: The console window now has fold support for easier navigation
New: Where possible, console entries have stack traces that link directly to source code
New: Console entries have timestamps in the same format as the main request grid
New: Console entries indicate which page was active when they were collected. The page link can be selected to view the page in the main request grid
New: Console entries that relate to a network request now have a link that navigates to the matching entry in the main request grid
New: Console output now supports console.table, console.time, console.count and other modern logging features
New: Browser and operating system information is now extracted from HAR files and displayed in HttpWatch
New: Warnings HW3009 and HW3010 added to detect incorrect content headers and invalid content types returned by servers
New: Automatically detects incorrectly labelled content types (e.g. HTML, JSON, CSS, JavaScript, XML) and applies correct formatting
New: Tighter integration with Chrome and Edge - activating a tab or HttpWatch window now brings the corresponding window to the foreground
New: Recording activity is now clearly indicated with an animated icon in the browser toolbar
New: The Cookies tab has a new JavaScript column that shows whether a cookie value was set from JavaScript. A clickable link navigates to the source code that set the cookie value and a context menu item allows navigation to the corresponding event in the Console window
Improved: More accurate request timing and duration calculations, especially for redirected requests
Improved: Ability to expand or collapse all console entries and control default expansion behaviour
Improved: Warnings dialog is now resizable
Improved: Window positioning can be reset by holding Shift when opening a window
Improved: Title bar now displays both the page title and URL
Improved: The extension now correctly redirects from protected chrome:// pages when running as a forced install, e.g. using the ExtensionInstallForceList
Fixed: Issues where redirected requests could show incorrect or missing headers
Fixed: Missing or incorrectly attributed network events in fast-loading scenarios
Fixed: Ctrl+F4 now correctly closes the active document in HttpWatch Studio
Changed: The log start time is now set when recording starts - not on the arrival of the first network or console event
Changed: Updated Chrome and Edge extensions - version 16 or later is now required