One of the functions that we tend to perform most frequently from our computer is to browse the Internet. For this, we have at our disposal a wide variety of web browsers. Among them, the most popular is undoubtedly Google Chrome. Despite being the most used today, this browser has been characterized in recent years as one of the programs that consumes the most resources on the PC. Not only does it cover a large amount of RAM, but it also consumes processor resources and drains the battery faster, if you have a laptop.
And is that, in recent years, Chrome has earned a certain reputation for being a browser that consumes a lot of system resources . But Google is not always responsible for the low performance since we can also configure various options to extend the battery of our laptop when we are using it, since Google has been introducing some improvements in recent times to help us obtain better performance. That is why today we are going to see some tips and tricks what we can do to make Chrome consume less battery.
Having many tabs open at the same time is not a good idea
One of the most useful tips to save battery life using Chrome is to avoid having a large number of tabs open at the same time . This causes that the greater the number of tabs, the greater the memory consumption you need since we will have a lot of web pages that will be running in the background and this will have a negative impact on the use of our battery. From the Google Task Manager we will be able to consume CPU and memory made by each tab that we have open. That is why every time we use the battery of our laptop we do not use too many open tabs in Chrome
Activate the new CPU Throttling feature
Google is aware of the problems that its browser has on the performance of our PC, due to the numerous complaints that it receives from its users given the large amount of RAM and CPU it consumes. That is why with the arrival of Chrome 86 last October a new function called CPU Throttling was included . This function is in charge of limiting the CPU usage on all open and inactive tabs for more than 5 minutes. These tabs can also be reactivated once a minute so that, if they run something in the background, the process is not lost. Thanks to this new feature, we can reduce CPU use by 5 times by the browser and with it its impact on the battery, which can be extended by up to an hour and a half.
To activate the function we have to access the page Chrome: // flags and search for “heavy-ad”. Next, in the drop-down menu next to “enable-heavy-ad-vention” we must select Enabled . In the “heavy-ad-privacy-mitigations” section we will select the Disabled option and, finally, we will restart Chrome for the changes to take effect.
How can we check, if we want to improve the battery performance of our laptop with Chrome it is very convenient to always keep it updated to the latest version. In case we have it installed and we have not updated it to its latest version, we can force its download from the Help> Information menu in Google Chrome. If we don’t have it installed, we can download Chrome for free from its main website.
Disable the option for Chrome to run in the background
Another option is to prevent Chrome from draining the battery of our laptop is to make sure that we close it completely. And, by default, the browser continues to run in the background , even after closing it. With this, Chrome not only allows the execution of some browser functions in the background, but also allows them to be reopened in a faster way, since those resources are already running. However, with this also Chrome will continue to have a significant impact on the battery of our laptop while it is running in the background.
That is why, although this function is enabled by default, it can be disabled quickly and easily. To do this, we must open Chrome and click on the icon in the shape of three stripes that we find in the upper right. Next, a menu will open where we must select the “Configuration” option. Later we must move to the option “Advanced Configuration”, click on it and more additional functions will be displayed, among which we will click on “System”. Once inside we will find the option to “Continue running applications in the background when closing Google Chrome”, which we must uncheck . With this, once we have closed the browser, it will do so completely with the consequent saving of resources and with it, battery.
Remove browser extensions that you don’t use
The extensions are Chrome are small programs that are added to the browser to provide extra functionality. There are thousands of extensions so we can decide at any time which ones interest us and which ones are not. In this way we get a much more personalized and useful browser. The problem with extensions is that they cause a greater consumption of resources on our computer and therefore a greater consumption of the battery.
In Chrome, we can see the impact of using our extensions. To do this we must click on the three-bar icon in the upper right, click on “More tools” and then on “Task manager”. Those elements that start with “Extension” are referred to the extensions that Chrome is running . In them we can see the memory and CPU usage that our PC requires.
In addition to the browser extensions, it also includes scripts that run when we load your website to provide us with its features. If we run additional scripts this results in higher CPU consumption and therefore higher battery consumption. That is why it is convenient to uninstall those extensions that consume more and that we use less to get a lighter browser. To do this, we must click on the menu button, then on “More tools” and clicking on “Extensions”. From here we can uninstall all those unnecessary extensions.
Prevent websites from turning on Flash
Chrome no longer supports any plug-ins except Flash, but even then it won’t run automatically unless we give it permission to do so. That is why it is important that we prevent websites from activating and running Adobe Flash in the background by default. This will cause a reduction in the consumption of our battery since we avoid loading heavy Flash ads in the background, since only those Flash contents that we specifically allow can be executed.
To activate it we must click on the icon of the three bars and access the “Configuration”. Later we click on “Privacy and Security” and in the “Content” section we select “Flash”. Here we must keep the “Ask before” button activated . This way, Chrome will need your permission before a website can run the Flash plug-in content.
