How to Speed Up Google Chrome: Technical & Non Technical methods

Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers in the world. It is known for its speed and performance, but sometimes while using this browser, it runs out of memory or starts slowing down. To maintain its original speed, we need to ensure that a few things are in order. So, we will look at what we can do both technically and non-technically to make sure it works perfectly.

Most of these technical things will work on both desktop and mobile Chrome browsers.

1. Clearing Browsing Data

Continuous usage of the Chrome browser accumulates a lot of meta data that is not useful for us but is useful for the browser. However, this can make our system slow and decrease performance. To ensure that this data is removed regularly, we need to clear it periodically. This data includes cookies, cache, and browsing history

How to Clear:

1. Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of Chrome.
2. Go to Settings > Privacy and security.
3. Click on Clear browsing data.
4. Select the time range (e.g., Last 7 days, All time).
5. Check the boxes for Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files(remember u will lost all the things).
6. Click Delete data.

2 Disable Unnecessary Extensions

To enhance our tasks, we often use extensions in the Chrome browser. These days, Chrome extensions take up a lot of memory when they are in use, and even when they are not in use, they still consume some memory in the background. Therefore, we should either disable or uninstall them if they are not needed. Here are the steps to perform this task

How to Disable/Remove Extensions:

1. Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
2. Go to More tools > Extensions.
3. Toggle off extensions you don’t need or click Remove to uninstall them.

3 Usage of Hardware Acceleration

The Chrome browser has a hardware acceleration feature that helps in the smooth functioning of the browser. Let’s take an example to understand: if we have a website with videos and animations, and when we open it in our browser, it lags. To avoid lagging, we can enable hardware acceleration in Chrome. This allows the processing to be transferred from the CPU to the GPU, which can free up memory on the CPU, thereby reducing lag significantly. This is how hardware acceleration works.

How to Enable:

1. Go to Settings > System.
2. Toggle on Use hardware acceleration when available.
3. Restart Chrome to apply the changes.

4 Close Unnecessary Tabs

As we work on Chrome, we tend to use a lot of tabs simultaneously—some in the background and some active. Each individual tab takes up memory, and sometimes memory freezing occurs. To free up memory and ensure the smooth running of tasks, we can close unused tabs to free up some memory and avoid freezing.

5 Preloading of Pages

Chrome has a feature that preloads pages before the user even visits them. This way, when we click on a link or a website, the page opens instantly because it has been preloaded in the background beforehand. By default, the preloading feature is enabled. You can enable or disable it from the settings if you want to save data or for other reasons.

How to Enable:

1. Go to Settings > Privacy and security.
2. Click on Cookies and other site data.
3. Toggle on Preload pages for faster browsing and searching.

6 Update Chrome Regularly

Google regularly sends updates that include performance improvements and security patches for better functionality. Always check for updates in the settings to ensure you’re using the latest version.

How to Update:

1. Click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
2. Go to Help > About Google Chrome.
3. Chrome will automatically check for updates and install them.

7 Reset Chrome Settings

If you’ve changed any settings in the Chrome browser or if any setting has had an adverse effect on your browsing experience, you can try resetting Chrome to its original settings. This will restore the browser to its default state.

How to Reset:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Scroll down and click Advanced.
3. Under Reset and clean up, click Restore settings to their original defaults.
4. Confirm by clicking Reset settings.

8 Download Chrome from the Official Website

Always try to download Chrome from the official website, not from any unauthorized sites, to ensure that the browser is authentic.

9 Google Task Manager

Chrome has an inbuilt task manager that shows tabs and extensions currently running, whether actively or in the background, along with their RAM and CPU usage. Based on this information, you can decide to free up some memory by quitting tabs or extensions.

How to Use:

1. Press Shift + Esc to open Chrome’s Task Manager.
2. Look for processes that are using a lot of memory or CPU.
3. Select the process and click End process.

10 Check System Storage and RAM

Users sometimes face problems while using Chrome due to insufficient memory and storage, which can affect Chrome’s performance. Since Chrome consumes a significant amount of memory and produces a lot of data, both RAM and storage are heavily utilized. Ensure that you have sufficient RAM and storage while using the Chrome browser to avoid issues.

11 Reboot Your System Regularly

Some of us leave our systems running for extended periods without shutting them down. In such cases, performance issues in Chrome may arise because some files consume RAM and storage and are not freed until the system is restarted. It’s a good idea to restart your system regularly to maintain sufficient space and RAM.