How to Speed Up Google Chrome in 5 Easy Tweaks and Tips – 2016
Google’s Chrome web browser is the current leader of the browser wars, and is one of the most advanced web browsers available on the market. Out of the box it is also one of the fastest browsers out there, but sometimes it may seem to be just a little too slow, especially if you are a true Internet speed demon.
Don’t worry, there are things that you can do to speed up the already fast browser known as Google Chrome. Let’s take a look at 5 Chrome tweaks that can speed up your browsing experience.
Disable Unwanted Extensions
Extensions are little apps that extend the functionality of the browser. In most cases, these extensions run in the background doing things like blocking ads or filtering web pages before they are displayed. While these can be great, too many can really slow down your surfing experience.
To disable them, go to Options > More tools > Extensions and uncheck the extensions you don’t need or click on the trash icon to delete it entirely.
Turn Off Unused Plugins
Plugins actually function much like extensions, providing additional functionality to the browser. Plugins are usually things like Adobe Flash, PDF Viewers, etc. While these are great, get too many and your browser will slow down.
To disable plugins you don’t need, type chrome://plugins in the address bar in Chrome. Click Disable next to any plugin you no longer need.
Delete Unneeded Web Apps
One of the greatest aspects of Chrome is the huge variety of apps you can download from the Chrome Store. Google has even turned this functionality into a full operating system known as ChromeOS. However, if you load up your browser with a ton of applications, more memory will be taken on your system and Chrome could start to slow to a crawl.
To remove any apps that you really don’t need or even use, type chrome://apps in the address bar. Right-click the app you want to remove and select Remove from Chrome…, then click the Remove button to confirm the app removal.
Clear Browser Data
Every browser keeps a record of your history and stores cookies that are downloaded from websites. In many cases these are designed to actually improve your performance as it can load content from your machine instead of downloading a fresh copy each time. However, in some cases you can get too much in there or some of the history and cookie files can become corrupted leading to a slower browser experience.
To clear your browsing data, type chrome://settings into the address bar. Scroll down to the Privacy section and then click on the Clear browsing data… button. Check everything in the list and choose how far back you want to go, and then click on Clear browsing data. This will remove all those unwanted files so you can start fresh.
Turn on Experimental Features
Chrome comes with many secret features and some that are still in the experimental stages. Many of the settings in these features can greatly speed up your browser, but be careful. Some of these features may or may not work for you and they aren’t always bug free. This means that while you are trying them out it could cause even more problems for you.
Still there are a ton of features buried in these hidden features such as page loading boosts, better rendering engines, and more.
To begin using the experimental settings, type chrome://flags in the address bar. From there, you can enable a variety of settings including the experimental canvas features, fast tab and windows closing, and much more.
*Bonus Tip: Experimental Canvas Features
Experimental Canvas Features allow the Chrome to make use of opaque canvases to amplify the loading times and boost performance.
To enable experimental canvas features:
- Go to “chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-canvas-features“.
- Click on Enable and then Relaunch Now button
Conclusion
Google Chrome may be one of the fastest web browsers on the market, but it is possible for you to make it even faster if you just take a few minutes to tweak Chrome for speed. The six we talked about today are some of the easiest for almost anyone to perform and can make quite a difference in how fast the web loads on your computer.