These 11 Ways Will Help You To Speed Up Chrome
Google Chrome is one of the most popular and streamlined web browsers in the world. However, despite of all the feature updates and bug-fixes, Chrome can be slow at times. The reason could be due to some of its features, extensions or applications.
However, the good news is that it is still possible to greatly improve your browser’s overall speed and sensitivity just by using several tips, tricks, and hacks.
In this article, we bring to you 11 ways to help you to speed up your Chrome. By following these, not only will it improve Chrome’s page loading but also it’s browsing speeds. In order to allow the browser to load web pages faster, these tips and tricks disable various unnecessary and unneeded features of Chrome, which include extensions, plugins and web apps that you don’t need.
1. Disable Avoidable Extensions
While extensions are considered as helpful tools that prolong the functionality of the Chrome browser, yet some may actually be less helpful than one might think. Extensions mostly run in the background, and parse or filter web pages before they are displayed on the screen, but will also load their own pack of data from the Internet.
To get better browsing speeds and good response times, disable and/or delete extensions you don’t actually need.
To disable extensions:
1. Type “chrome://extensions” in your Chrome’s location bar. Otherwise, you can go to Chrome’s Options > More tools > Extensions.
2. Untick the Enabled to the extensions you want to disable, or click the Trash icon to delete the extension.
2. Disable Unnecessary Plugins
Similar to extensions, plugins offer extended functionalities to the browser. Chrome comes with few built-in plugins provided by Google (like Chrome PDF Viewer, Native Client, etc.), and may carry plugins by other software installed in your computer. Like extensions, plugins can slow down the browser and block memory and network resources.
To disable plugins:
1. Type “chrome://plugins” in your Chrome’s address bar.
2. Click Disable to disable the plugin you no longer need.
3. Remove Excessive Web Apps
Besides being a web browser, Google Chrome is also an application platform for web apps. It can run locally-installed web apps written using HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. While web apps don’t load resources like websites do, if you don’t need them, remove them.
To remove unnecessary web apps:
1. Type “chrome://apps” in your Chrome’s address bar or click Apps on the Bookmarks bar.
2. Right-click the app you want to remove, select Remove from Chrome…, and click the Remove button to confirm the removal.
4. Enable Prefetch Resources
Google Chrome comes with many smart features such as network prediction, resource preloader, spelling correction, etc. Resource pre-fetcher or preloader offers intellectual suggestions about the pages or links the user is most probably to open next, loading those pages/links in the background before you actually open them.
To enable the prefetch feature in Chrome browser:
1. Head over to Chrome’s Options > Settings > Show advanced settings…
2. Check the “Prefetch resources to load pages more quickly” option.
Enable Secret Hacks
There are several secret and experimental features that Google Chrome has under its cloak. These are experiments by the Chrome’s developer team – some may not be built for beginners, some may not work for some devices, and some may not be good for your computer too.
However, luckily enough there are some experiments that are handy enough to enhance the browser’s page-loading and rendering engines.
Again, some of them may not work for some devices, and if you find yourself in a situation like this, just undo the hack to go back to normal.
5. Experimental Canvas Features
Experimental Canvas Features allow the Chrome to make use of opaque canvases to increase the loading times and improve performance.
To enable experimental canvas features:
1. Go to “chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-canvas-features.
2. Click on Enable and then Relaunch Now button.
6. Fast Tab/Window Close
The Fast Tab/Window Close option escalates the response time of the browser when a user tries to close tabs or windows. Enabling this feature runs a tab’s onUnload.js handler autonomously of the graphical interface and speeds up the closing process.
To enable fast tab/window close feature:
1. Type “chrome://flags/#enable-fast-unload” in the address bar.
2. Click on Enable and then Relaunch Now button.
7. Scroll Prediction
Scroll Prediction feature tells the Chrome browser to foresee the finger’s future position during scrolls allowing the engine to render the frame before the page is scrolled again.
To enable Scroll Prediction:
1. Type “chrome://flags/#enable-scroll-prediction” in the location bar.
2. Click on Enable and then Relaunch Now.
8. Maximum Tiles
Maximum Tiles refers to the tiles for interest area. Increasing the maximum number of tiles allows Chrome to show more tiles based on your interests or browsing history, which lets you to quickly open a new website from the interest area.
To increase the number Maximum Tiles:
1. Go to “chrome://flags/#max-tiles-for-interest-area” in your browser.
2. Select 512 from the dropdown. Click Relaunch Now.
9. Raster Threads
Raster Threads are responsible for rendering images in Chrome. Increasing the number of raster threads enhances the image rendering time, and thus impacts page loading time.
To increase the number of raster threads:
1. Open “chrome://flags/#num-raster-threads” in Chrome.
2. Choose 4 from the dropdown menu and click Relaunch Now.
10. Answers in Suggest
The “Answers in Suggest” feature allows Chrome to show responses to certain kind of queries (mostly questions) directly in the Omnibox’s suggestion list. You will no longer have to wait for the page to load to see answers for your queries, once you enable this feature.
To enable Answers in Suggest:
1. Type “chrome://flags/#answers-in-suggest” in the location bar.
2. Choose Enabled from the dropdown. Click Relaunch Now button.
11. Simple Cache for HTTP
Simple Cache is the new caching device for Google Chrome. Depending on the filesystem for space allocation, it works better than the old caching system.
To enable Simple Cache:
1. Go to “chrome://flags/#enable-simple-cache-backend” in your browser.
2. Select Enabled from the dropdown. Click Relaunch Now button.
Find out more useful chrome flags here
