Without taking measurements to the nanosecond to see which browser is faster to open, I think nobody can object that Google Chrome is currently the one that responds best, the most responsive . At the same time, however, it is also true that Chrome is starting to get a bit heavy on the computer, especially if there are many open tabs and many extensions installed.
The program, therefore, at first runs, then begins to slow down after intense use.
The fact is that Google Chrome opens every new tab in a dedicated process, therefore, especially on low-end or older computers, it has evident performance drops when there are so many tabs open.
In this post we see some tips to keep Chrome fast and responsive without slowing down and with less memory consumption .
READ ALSO: How to speed up Google Chrome if slow or heavy
1) Eliminate all that data that is saved in the cache of temporary files, which accumulate over time.
The browser, when loading a site, looks for whether it or parts of it are present in Cache to load it more quickly.
However, if this cache is very large and full of data saved by the browsing history, this process tends to slow down Chrome.
The problem is more evident for those who browse many different sites every day and less for those who always open the same without doing too much research.
Click the small wrench icon at the top right of Google Chrome, enter the Settings, click on " advanced " and, in the " Privacy " section Press on Clear browsing data .
Before confirming the deletion, select only the " Empty Cache " option to keep the other data saved.
After clearing the cache, Chrome should take up less memory and perform better even if websites can open slightly slower, at least the first time.
If your computer has a lot of RAM, this trick is not necessary.
READ ALSO: Clear cache and delete cookies on Firefox, Chrome, Safari, IE
2) Start each new browsing session from scratch .
Many people choose to start Google Chrome with the same tabs that were open in the previous session.
If the browser was taking up all the RAM in the previous session, restarting the browser with the same session will cause the same problem.
Furthermore, for the same reason, it is necessary to close the browser every time the session slows down because the open tabs tend to increase memory consumption over time.
READ ALSO: Open Chrome and Firefox super fast without external extensions and plugins
3) Start Chrome with a blank page .
Especially on less powerful PCs, you can further reduce the memory consumed by Chrome if in the general options you choose to load the New Tab page at startup.
Even better, you can open a completely empty page using the Empty New Tab Page extension.
4) Close the tabs to reopen them when needed
After opening 10 or more sites together, close those that are not needed to decrease RAM consumption.
Each time you close a tab, it frees up some computer memory and those that remain open will be faster to reload and navigate.
I remember that from Chrome 15 with the new initial tab, there is at the bottom the " Reopen Closed Tabs " button where the recently visited web pages are stored to reopen them quickly.
Also in the options menu, going to history, you can reopen the last closed tabs.
Closed tabs can also be reopened by pressing the CTRL Shift T keys together.
5) Remove unused extensions
There are thousands of extensions on the Chrome Web Store that do a little bit of everything.
The temptation to install as many as possible is very strong but one must resist and, indeed, uninstall those that are never used.
The problem is that each extension (not the applications) uses a little memory so, if there are too many, already when Chrome is opened the browser becomes heavy, even without having loaded any site.
In particular, there are extensions that may not be optimized and consume more than necessary.
You should then deactivate all the extensions (from the wrench, tools menu) and reactivate them one by one by seeing, in the Chrome internal task manager (press Shift-Esc), how much memory they consume.
The heavier ones should be removed.
If possible, it is advisable not to activate more than 10-15 extensions together .
6) Recommended extension to make Chrome fast.
As already written in another article, The extension that keeps Chrome light and fast without killing the PC is The Great Suspender, which suspends inactive cards after a certain period of time, automatically recovering memory for the most recent ones.
7) Use bookmarklets instead of extensions whenever possible.
Bookmarklets are buttons on the bookmarks bar that act only when pressed.
Whenever possible, it is advisable to use bookmarklets instead of extensions which, on the other hand, always remain active in the background.
The best Bookmarklets are listed in another article.
8) Final makeup
Google Chrome has a reset function.
You can then use the reset button in Chrome, ( Reset button in advanced settings) to disable extensions, clear cache and temporary files, to reset home page and basic settings.
In addition, you can use the Google Software Cleaner program to correct Chrome errors, caused by extensions or external programs.
READ ALSO: hidden tricks, options and commands for Chrome
