15 Ways to Speed up Google Chrome

There are many ways in which you can boost the performance of Google Chrome on your desktop. The basic thing that you need to understand is that the browser works faster when you have the appropriate settings on your computer. By making suitable changes to the extensions available in the browser and using some of its hidden features, it is possible to drastically improve the speed of Google Chrome. This can save lots of time for users and also avoid the frustration of dealing with a slow browser.

You do not need any technical expertise to accomplish this task and all you need to do is to follow the simple instructions given in this article to speed up Google Chrome on your desktop computer.

Method 1: Disable unnecessary extensions

Chrome Extensions

The amazing benefits of using Google Chrome browser for your everyday activities is that it is loaded with different extensions that can help you in different tasks. These tools run in the background and help the browser to display the web pages according to your preference.

You may have noticed different extensions that block advertisements on the browser and help you to increase the security of the computer by screening the content before it is loaded on the browser.

Similarly, you can even add extensions for Google Docs and Google sheets if you frequently used them on the desktop. However, you may have many extensions that are not used on a regular basis and they still continue to run in the background and slow down the browser by a huge margin. To avoid this situation, you can remove the extensions that are no longer needed for your everyday activities and improve the performance of Google Chrome.

  • Go to the settings option of the browser and select the Tools
  • From here, you can click on the Extensions tab and get the complete list of different extensions for your browser.
  • You can also type “chrome://extensions” in the browser window and directly access this section.
  • Once you go through the entire list of extensions installed on the browser, you will get a fair idea about their utility and you can choose to remove the unwanted extensions in this manner.
  • Simply right-click to select the extension you want to remove and you can delete them from the browser.

Method 2: Clear Browsing Data regularly

It is common for browsers to store frequently used data like images, saved form data, URLs so that it can load the websites quickly whenever needed. In some cases, browsers even ask permission to store the password and you can easily access your favourite portals without signing in every time from your computer.

While this can help you in many ways, it can also slow down the computer when there is too much of data stored in the cache memory. You will also notice that you may not use many websites frequently and storing all the cookies for them will only hamper the performance of the browser. In this regard, you should frequently clear the browsing data to speed up the browser.

Clear Chrome Browsing Data

  • Go to the address bar and access the History This can also be accomplished by using the shortcut key CTRL+H.
  • This will open a new tab that contains the entire browsing data and you will have different options with regards to clearing the data from the computer.
  • If you want to remove the data only for a certain duration, you can choose the option that clears the browsing data for the past hour or a day.
  • In the same manner, it is also possible to remove the complete cache files stored on your computer and this can free a lot of space for the browser.
  • You can clear other things like history, cookies, saved passwords if you want.

If you are someone who clears history and cache regularly, you should make use of chrome Incognito window (Ctrl+Shft+N) since history and cache won’t stick to your browser memory.

Method 3: Close browser whenever possible

Many people keep the browser open all the time for fear of losing important data on the web pages. This can slow down the browser in the long run as it keeps running different applications in the background. There is no need to worry about missing out on important web pages as Chrome saves all the data and you can easily access them at a later stage without any issues.

Chrome Startup Settings

  • Go to the address bar of Google Chrome and access the settings by typing “chrome://settings”
  • From here, you can choose the startup menu option which has different options to open a new tab or any specific page that was loaded earlier on the computer.
  • Yet another option you can find in this menu is to continue from where you left off and this can help you in many ways.
  • By choosing this option, you can easily get back to your previous browsing session even after you have closed the Google Chrome browser.

Method 4: Always use the default theme

While it can be exciting to use different themes on your browser, you have to also remember that they can slow down the computer in many cases. The best thing you can do in this situation is to switch the Google Chrome browser to the default theme.

  • To begin with, you can access the browser settings that can be found on the right side of the desktop. This is usually indicated by 3 vertical dots.
  • When you click on this tab, it will open multiple options and you can go to the settings column.
  • The next step is to choose the Appearance section from the settings menu where you can find different options to get themes from the Internet and restore the browser to the default theme.
  • Here, you can choose the reset button and transfer the settings to the default theme of Google Chrome. This is one of the easiest ways to boost the performance of the browser.

Method 5: Use Background Prefetching effectively

Turn it on:

  • You will be glad to know that Google Chrome has different features that can predict user behaviour and loads the pages based on this factor. This feature provides effective suggestions about the pages that are likely to be opened by the users and keeps them ready in the background.
  • The simple way to enable this option is to choose the advanced settings tab in the browser settings section.
  • You can click on the Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly and enable it on your browser. If you are using an older version of Chrome then you should enable Prefetch resources loading tab in the advanced settings.

Chrome Prediction Service Privacy Settings

Turn it off:

  • The surprising thing about this feature is that it can also slow down the system by unnecessarily loading different sections of the webpage even before you access them.
  • If you are working on a slow computer, you will face lots of problems when you have enabled prefetch option.
  • Follow the same method as mentioned above and unselect the prediction service option in the browser setting.
  • In this way, you can use the method according to the capacity of your computer.

Method 6: Disable unwanted plugins

Note: Plugins option is removed in the recent versions of Chrome. You can make use of Content settings menu to disable additional plugins like Flash. 

You can notice that your Google Chrome browser has different plugins that basically extend the normal functions of the browser. There are many built-in plugins of the browser and it is also possible to install third-party plugins that are useful for the everyday browsing activities. In most cases, this can help the users to load the web pages quickly and continue browsing in an effective manner.

However, when there are unwanted plugins in the browser, they can slow down the overall performance by clogging the memory of the system. The best thing to do in this case is to remove them from the browser so that you can free up a lot of space in the system.

  • Go to the settings option in the browser and select the plugins option
  • You can also type “chrome://plugins” in the address bar and reach this option directly.
  • This will give the complete list of plugins loaded on the browser and you can see the details about the plugins.
  • If you choose to remove the unwanted plugins from the browser, you can simply click on the Disable tab below the plugin and this will help you to reduce the load on the browser.

Method 7: Use experimental features – Flags

The developer team of Google Chrome keeps on conducting different experiments to improve the overall performance of the browser. As a user, you may not get to see the complete features that are in the experimental stage and most of them may not even be offered in the regular browser in future. However, the special features commonly known as flags are still available in the browser.

One thing you have to remember is that these features are still in the development stage and they may not work perfectly in every situation. The browser clearly mentions this aspect in the Warning section and you can continue to use these special features after considering all these factors. Let us take a look into some of the amazing experimental features of Google Chrome browser.

  • There are many such flags loaded in the browser and it can be very difficult to access them as they are not organized in a proper manner. You can choose the find option in the settings section and choose the relevant flag according to your individual requirement.
  • There is a special option to increase the browser response time with regards to closing different tabs and Windows on the system. It works by running the onUnload.js handler of the tab in an independent manner without using the GUI.
  • By enabling the offline cache mode of the browser, you can give access to the browser to load the saved versions of the web pages. This is extremely useful when you have connectivity issues and you will notice that the browser will load the web pages in quick time by selecting this option.
  • There is also a special option called Touch Events that can drastically improve the performance of the browser especially when it is used on a touchscreen computer or mobile device.
  • Another interesting experimental feature is the Accelerated Overflow that provides the best quality scrolling experience on web pages having lengthy content. It presents the content in a simple and uniform layer by avoiding overflow.

Method 8: Update Google Chrome

This is the simple way to get the best performance out of Google Chrome and you can easily update the version by following the simple instructions.

  • Open the browser and click on the three vertical dots that you can see on the upper right-hand side of the desktop.
  • It has multiple options to control the Google Chrome Browser and you can choose the Customize button in this menu.
  • If your version does not have this option, you can choose the Help section and select the tab that displays About Google Chrome.
  • Here the browser can automatically check for the latest updates and you can install them whenever they are available.
  • Another simple option is to visit the official website of Google Chrome to download the latest version of the browser.

Method 9: Utilize saved browser sessions extensions

It is very easy to save the entire browsing session by choosing extensions like Session Buddy. When you have different tabs in the browser, you can choose such options and close them without worrying about losing track of the websites.

The extension will allow you to save the tabs and you can resume working on them whenever you want in future. However, you must understand that this will restore the tabs from scratch by downloading the content from the Internet and there is a risk of losing data that has been modified on the web page.

Method 10: Remove unwanted apps

Google Chrome is one of the most popular web browsers in the market as it is compatible with different web applications. Users have the flexibility to install different apps on the computer that can drastically improve the performance of the browser. These programs can conveniently run in the background and help the users in their everyday browsing activities.

However, if you notice that there are many apps in the browser that are no longer required, it is a good option to remove them from the browser so that you can load the website quickly without putting too much load on the browser.

  • Visit the settings option of Google Chrome Browser and select the Apps section from the drop-down menu.
  • You can also type “chrome://apps” and directly visit this section from the address bar.
  • Here, you can find the entire list of different apps loaded on the browser.
  • Whenever you want to remove any unwanted apps from the browser, you can right-click on the selected apps and choose the Remove from Chrome
  • It is always a good idea to go through the App info section before you remove them from the browser.

Method 11: Enable Simple Cache

Google Chrome uses a different mechanism for caching the files and this is called simple cache. This can drastically reduce the loading time as it works effectively when compared to the previous caching system. It uses space in the appropriate manner by allocating files in an organized way and this helps the browser to load the web pages quickly.

Chrome Simple Cache Flag

  • You need to use the experimental features of the browser to use this option.
  • You can type “chrome://flags/” in the browser and visit the flags section that contains different experimental features.
  • Scroll the entire list and find the simple cache option in this window.
  • You can notice the drop-down menu below the simple cache feature tab.
  • It will normally be set to the default option which needs to be changed to the enable option to use this feature.
  • Once you select Enable from the drop-down menu, the colour changes to blue and this confirms that you have selected the option correctly.
  • After this, you can click on the Relaunch now tab to use the feature on your browser.

Method 12: Maximum tiles

Google Chrome keeps a tab on your browsing history and displays the appropriate number of tiles according to your interests. This makes it possible for users to quickly open any web portal in the relevant category based on the data compiled in the browsing history section.

There is a limit that is set by default for the maximum tiles that is displayed in the browser. When you increase this number, the performance of the browser increases a lot and you will notice that different web pages can open quickly as the browser can store more data about your interests based on your browsing history.

  • All you need to do is to access the flags section by typing “chrome://flags” in the browser window.
  • Scroll down the entire section to find Maximum tiles for interest area
  • This has a drop-down menu and you need to select the maximum limit available from the menu.
  • Select 512 from the drop-down option and choose the Relaunch Now

Method 13: Raster threads

The browser has a unique feature called Raster thread that renders the images in the proper format. By increasing the number of thread in the flags section, you can significantly reduce the rendering time for loading images on the browser. This can positively affect the overall loading time of the entire webpage as it may contain several images.

  • Visit the flags section in the browser by typing “chrome://flags” in the address bar.
  • Select the Number of Raster Threads option from the list.
  • Set the option to 4 from the drop-down menu and Relaunch the browser.
  • This allows the browser to use the maximum number of threads that can load different images in a short duration of time thereby increasing the performance of the browser.

Method 14: Scroll Prediction

Google Chrome uses an intelligent feature called Scroll prediction to predict the future movements of the cursor. This helps the browser to keep the frames ready for rendering even before you scroll in that particular direction. You must however understand that, this feature is still in the experimental stage and it may not work perfectly in every case. You can try and use this feature to see if it makes any difference to your overall browsing experience.

  • Visit the flags section of the browser by typing “chrome://flags” in the address bar.
  • Search for the Enable Scroll Prediction option and click on the enable button.
  • You can later Relaunch the browser to save the settings in the browser.

Method 15: Suspend tabs without closing them

Any browser can have problems when you open too many tabs and Google Chrome is no exception. This takes more memory and slows down the entire browsing experience. The good news however, is that you can use special extensions on the Google Chrome browser and suspend the tabs without closing them completely.

There are many such extensions available and you can conveniently try and use the Great Suspender for this purpose. This helps you to curb the usage of memory and the suspended tabs will not be closed in any manner. This is the best option when you want to move out of your system for some time and you can conveniently get back to work by simply clicking on the suspended tab.

In this way, you can choose any option that suits your individual requirements and enhance the overall performance of Google Chrome. You have to be careful when you are using the experimental features of the browser as they are not completely tested and this can shut down the entire browser unexpectedly. Keep experimenting with different options till you notice a significant improvement in the performance of the browser.

Related Stories

Leave A Reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Stay on top - Get the latest updates in your inbox