Is Google Chrome browser your primary desktop browser? Today, you can maximize Chrome performance by following our simple step-by-step method!

1. Steve Williams
Useful Chrome Browser
Tips You Should Know
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2. Useful Chrome Browser Tips You Should Know
About
For many of us, Google Chrome is our primary desktop browser. According
to Net Marketshare, Chrome has 48.65% of the browser market share (July
2016).
Source: Net Marketshare
As with any piece of software, Chrome can quickly become a source of
processor and memory consumption.
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3. Useful Chrome Browser Tips You Should Know
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Are you running Chrome with many open tabs? Or do you use several
extensions or Chrome apps? Sometimes, it’s not easy to pinpoint Chrome
performance issues.
In this article, I will help you to:
understand the Chrome browser components
identify the CPU / Memory intensive tasks
maximize chrome performance
reduce battery consumption
In a nutshell, you need to monitor your system activity to identify the source of
your performance issues. Next, you will eradicate or minimize these sources.
Let’s first start with the monitoring part.
Monitoring Chrome Browser Performance
Whenever you notice your computer performance is sluggish, you may want to
investigate by launching Activity Monitor (Mac Os) or Task Manager
(Windows). Let’s see the following two examples:
Mac Os: Activity Monitor
You will notice those multiple “Google Chrome Helper” tasks. Each one takes
a slice of CPU and memory. Each of these tasks refers to a tab, an extension
or a Chrome app.
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In the example below, I filtered results to display only Chrome related tasks.
Based on what’s shown, you cannot determine what causes the problem. Do
these represent an open tab? Or maybe an extension? All we know is the top
two tasks are taking 15.6 % and 9.5% CPU resources. If you need to view the
memory usage, click on the Memory tab. You can also display other resources
such as Disk and Network statistics.
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To start Activity Monitor:
From Finder: Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor
From Spotlight: type Activity Monitor and hit Return
Let’s move on to the Windows platform.
Windows: Task Manager
For those using Windows, you need to launchTask Manager. It will display all
running tasks. You will notice several Chrome.exe tasks (Windows 7) or
Google Chrome tasks (Windows 10).
Task Manager for Windows 7
In this example, everything seems quiet. You can sort columns by clicking on
them. Column-3 displays the CPU usage whereas column-4 is the memory
usage.
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Task Manager for Windows 10
Task manager has changed quite a bit in Windows 10. This example shows
some Google Chrome action. One task is using 16.4% CPU resources. As
discussed in the previous Mac Os example, you cannot tell which part of
Chrome is causing the performance issue.
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To launch Task Manager:
From the Start button (lower left corner), type: taskmgr.exe
Or from the keyboard: Ctrl+Shift+Esc
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8. Useful Chrome Browser Tips You Should Know
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Based on what we just discussed, both Activity Monitor and Task Manager
provide some clues about your system performance.
Read on, as you will get more detail with the following tool.
Enter Google Chrome Task Manager
Your Chrome browser has a built-in task manager. It provides a more granular
view of each of the Chrome browser components. With this tool, you can
identify which Chrome browser task is affecting performance.
Browser tasks can be tabs, extensions or apps, as outlined in the following
example:
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A Chrome browser app is an application launched from your Chrome browser.
It also executes within your browser space. Examples of apps: Feedly, Giffy
Diagrams, Buffer, etc.
Google Chrome Task Manager entries are prefixed as follows:
Tab: this represents an opened Tab in your browser
Extension: this task is an Extension
App: a running app within your browser space
In the following example, Google Chrome Task Manager reveals that
TweetDeck is running in a Tab and takes 33% CPU usage. There is also a
Chrome browser app running (Giffy Diagrams), but it only takes little CPU
resources.
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How to Launch Google Chrome Task Manager
In Windows, there are two ways to do this:
1. In the top right, click the icon > More Tools > Task Manager
2. Keyboard shortcut: Shift + Esc
On Mac Os, there are two ways to launch it:
1. In the top right, click the icon > More Tools > Task Manager
2. Chrome menu: Window > Task Manager
As opposed to Windows, the Chrome browser for Mac Osdoes not have a
keyboard shortcut. But you can add one as follows:
System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts tab
Click the + sign at the bottom
Application: select Google Chrome
Menu Title: type Task Manager
Keyboard Shortcut: type your shortcut (e.g., Option + T)
Typing that shortcut will now launch a Chrome Task Manager window. Don’t
forget to close this window after use to minimize resource usage.
Now that you can identify the culprits, your next step is to take action.
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How to Tame Chrome Browser Performance Hogs
In this section, I will show you four ways to mitigate your performance issues.
1. Chrome Task Manager
Once you identified the source of your performance problems with Chrome
Task Manager, choose one of these two methods:
1. Close the browser tab or app causing the issue.
2. From Chrome Task Manager
1. select a component, (a tab, an extension or an app)
2. Click the “End Process” button
2. One Tab Chrome extension
The One Tab Chrome extension will group all your tabs into a single one. All
tabs will suspend until you decide to restore them.
A tab group contains all your tabs. You can rename that tab group to identify
your work better. For example, “Marketing Project”.
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Whenever you need your tabs back, click the Restore All link. If you prefer, you
can restore each tab individually.
Tip
Another advantage of using the “One Tab” extension is that you can save
several sessions and rename them. Let’s say you are working on two different
projects. You could save all your current tabs to “Project A”. Then start
working on “Project B” by opening new tabs to various sites and save these
tabs for later use.
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One Tab references:
3. The Great Suspender Chrome extension
How about automating tab suspension?
With the Great Suspender Chrome extension, you can automatically suspend
tabs that become inactive after a set amount of time. The default is 10 minutes,
but you can customize that value to your needs.
Below is the Great Suspender General settings section. Many options are
available such as exceptions and whitelisted sites.
Install
Help Page
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4. App Tamer
App Tamer is an application that runs on Mac Os. You can use it to
automatically slowdown or pause any application. It is not unique to Chrome
browser.
Depending on your App Tamer settings, your videos or webinars may be
interrupted. To avoid this, disable App Tamer completely while viewing videos
or modify your settings to more conservative values.
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For instance, you can tell App Tamer to slow down Chrome browser if it takes
more than 10% CPU resources. In that case, Youtube video playback may be
affected.
Other than that, App Tamer is a neat app that can help you minimize your
overall processor usage. It will also contribute to reducing your laptop battery
consumption.
You can try it free for 15 days (no aff link).
Wrapping it up
Most of the time, I observed that Chrome browser performance issues
originated from odd behavior in open tabs.
With very simple steps, you can quickly isolate and minimize Google Chrome
performance problems.
Please leave a comment or feedback below!
If you liked this article, please share it with your peers.
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16. Useful Chrome Browser Tips You Should Know
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Welcome to BuzzAndTips!
I Steve Williams, a full-time digital marker. Prior to that, I spent 20+
years running my own business as a technology consultant. I
created the BuzzAndTips Website to help you building your own
online presence and monetize your efforts.
Please click the link below to know more about me and what I can do
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