Speeding up Chrome

There are some simple steps you can take to make sure that your Google Chrome browser is operating at optimum speed so you can run jobs in Relativity and other web based applications at the best possible speed. Chrome is notorious for taking up a lot of memory. See the Tip of the NIght for April 6, 2021.

First access Chrome's Task Manager by clicking on the three dot menu, and going to More tools . . . Task Manager:

In Task Manager, sort in the 'Memory footprint' and find which tasks are taking up the most memory.

You may find that some extensions added to the browser, and some processes listed as subframes are taking up a significant amount of memory. You can end these by clicking on the blue 'End process' button at the bottom of the window.

You should be careful about shutting down subframes. They are used to prevent some sites from improperly reading data input into another site.

You should see task named GPU Process taking up a lot of memory. This is used to render graphics on a web page, and should make online browsing faster.

Google recommends shutting down tasks which are designated as Background pages. These are html pages utilized by extensions.

The amount of memory that Chrome uses can increase greatly if you have a lot of tabs open. There is an extension called Auto Tab Discard which can be used to essentially hibernate other open tabs. The tabs will still appear to be open in your browser, but they will not take up as much memory. Auto Tab Discard appears as a small power button icon on the top toolbar in Chrome. (Be sure to click the puzzle piece icon on the far right of the browser so you can manage which extensions are displayed, after installing Auto Tab Discard.)

Auto Tab Discard will give you the option to 'discard' tabs to the left, to the right, or all other tabs other than your current one.

When these options are toggled on, the tabs will not close, but a small snoring 'zZZZ' icon will be added to them indicating that they are in a suspended mode.

Auto Tab Discard will retain data input on a page, and your position on a page. I tested it tonight and confirmed that it will not log you out of Relativity.

As soon as you click back on a discarded tab, it will automatically reactivate.