Make Google Chrome faster and be more productive.

Is your Google Chrome browser feeling a little slower than it once did? Or are you finding that it’s consuming a lot of your system’s RAM and making your PC feel slower than it should?
Here are some tips to help you make Google Chrome fast again, and to reduce the amount of RAM the browser eats up.

1: UPDATE YOUR GOOGLE CHROME BROWSER

If you’ve not closed Google Chrome in a while probably because you’ve got a whole bunch of tabs you’re keeping open then perhaps there’s an update waiting for you.
You can easily tell if there’s an update on later releases of Chrome because the menu button (the three vertical dots right of the address bar) will change from green to yellow and then red to give you a visual reminder of how out-of-date the browser you are running is.
To force Chrome to check for an update type chrome://help into the address bar and follow the prompts.

2: GET RID OF UNWANTED EXTENSIONS

Type chrome://extensions into the address bar and disable any unwanted extensions. Either uncheck the box to disable the extension or click on the trash can icon to delete it.
Note that if you delete an extension you lose all the data associated with it (this does not happen if you disable it)

3: GET RID OF UNWANTED PLUGINS

Type chrome://plugins into the address bar and disable any unwanted plugins. Just click the link to disable.

4: CONTROL TABS WITH CUSTOM EXTENSIONS

The amount of tabs you have open at any one time has a direct impact on the performance of Chrome, as well as how much RAM the application consumes. Fortunately, it’s possible to have a lot of tabs open and keep memory consumption under control with some extensions.
Another thing you can do is strip the page down to just the text using an extension such as Text Mode or Minimalist.

5: INSTALL THE DATA SAVER EXTENSION

If your problemis related more to a poor internet connection than it is to a sluggish browser, then one way you can help improve bandwidth is to install the Google Data Saver extension. This extension uses the Google servers to compress and optimize web pages before they are delivered to your browser.

6: CLOSE YOUR BROWSER!

You can customize Google Chrome to reopen exactly where you were when you closed it.
Type chrome://settings and under On startup you’ll see three options:

  •         Open the New Tab page
  •         Continue where you left off
  •        Open a specific page or set of pages

If you want Google Chrome to fire up where you left it, choose Continue where you left off, or if you want to start up from a custom set of pages, choose Open a specific page or set of pages and select those pages.
One word of caution be careful if you have multiple browser windows open, because only the tabs from the last window you closed will be reopened.

7: RUN WITH THE DEFAULT THEME

You can do a lot of customizing of Google Chrome, including changing the theme. However, themes eat RAM, so if you want the speediest possible browser, run with the default theme.
Type chrome://settings and under Appearance, if the Reset to default theme button isn’t greyed out then you’re running a custom theme. Click the button to go back to the default.

8: SMOOTHER SCROLLING

Type chrome://flags into the address bar and find Enable fast tab/windows close. This option speeds up Chrome by allowing it to close windows separate to any JavaScript code that might be running.
After you’ve made changes click the RELAUNCH NOW button at the bottom of the screen to apply the setting.
Note that this is an experimental feature and be sure to read the warnings at the top of the settings page in Chrome. To undo any changes click the Reset all to default button.

9: CLEAR YOUR CACHE

If you’regetting low on disk space then you might find Chrome will speed up if you clear the cache.
Type chrome://settings/clearBrowserData into the address bar and I’d suggest choosing only the Cached images and files option. Alternatively, you can nuke everything and start with a clean slate.
For best results clear items from the beginning of time.

10: CHECK YOUR SYSTEM FOR SPYWARE AND OTHER JUNK

Windows users can make use of Google’s Software Removal Tool. It might also be a good idea to scan the system using something such as Malwarebyte’s Anti-Malware.

BONUS: QUICK GOOGLE CHROME TIPS

One of the best ways to become a total Google Chrome power user is to learn how to control the browser using shortcut keys.
  •  You can select multiple tabs for dragging  hold down Ctrl on Windows or  on the Mac and click on the tabs you want to select.
  • Reopen a tab you’ve accidentally closed with Ctrl + Shift + T on Windows or  + Shift + Ton the Mac (you can reopen up to ten previously closed tabs).
  •  Google Chrome has it’s own task manager  click the menu button that lives to the right of the address bar (the button with the three vertical dots), go to More Tools and then choose Task Manager.
  •  You can use the spacebar to scroll down a webpage, and you can scroll back up by pressing Shift + Spacebar.
  • You know that T-Rex Google Chrome shows you when you lose connection to the internet (you can access the page by going to chrome://network-error/-106 ), if you press the spacebar the T-Rex will jump and kick off a simple game where you have to jump over cacti, Mario-style.
  • If you accidentally close a tab, you can recover it by pressing Ctrl + Shift + T on Windows or Linux, or  + Shift + T on a Mac.

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