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7 steps to speed up Google Chrome

The other day I realized that Google Chrome had begun to get slow and bloated, and since there's no new streamlined browser I can switch to, I decided to see if I could speed things up a bit. Here's what I did.

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor Dec. 19, 2015 at 4:38 a.m. PT

Many moons ago I switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox because Internet Explorer had become slow and bloated. Then a few years later I dumped Firefox for Google Chrome because, yes, you guessed it, Firefox had become slow and bloated.

, and since there's no new streamlined browser I can switch to, I decided to see if I could speed things up a bit.

After going through these steps, my installation of Google Chrome felt noticeably faster and snappier. Good luck speeding up your browser.

Note: These tips work for both Mac and Windows (and some even work for Linux!).

#1: Update Chrome

If you've not closed Google Chrome in a while then perhaps there's an update waiting for you (you can tell if there's an update on later releases of Chrome because the burger menu will change from green to yellow and then red to signify how out-of-date the browser you are running is).

To force Chrome to check for an update type chrome://help and follow any prompts.

#2: Disable unwanted extensions

Type chrome://extensions into the address bar and disable any unwanted extensions. Either uncheck the box to disable the extension or click the trash can to delete it.

#3: Disable unwanted plugins

Type chrome://plugins into the address bar and disable any unwanted plugins. Just click the link to disable.

#4: Smoother scrolling

Type chrome://flags into the address bar and find Enable fast tab/windows close. This option speeds up Chrome by allowing it to close windows separate to any JavaScript code that might be running. Then click the RELAUNCH NOW button at the bottom of the screen to apply the setting.

Note that this is an experimental feature and be sure to read the warnings at the top of the settings page in Chrome. To undo any changes click the Reset all to default button.

#5: Tab discarding

Type chrome://flags into the address bar and find Enable tab discarding. This option speeds up Chrome by allowing tabs in the background to be discarded from memory if it's getting low. Then click the RELAUNCH NOW button at the bottom of the screen to apply the setting.

Note that this is an experimental feature and be sure to read the warnings at the top of the settings page in Chrome. To undo any changes click the Reset all to default button.

#6: Clear the cache

If you're getting low on disk space then you might find Chrome will speed up if you clear the cache.

Type chrome://settings/clearBrowserData into the address bar and I'd suggest choosing only the Cached images and files option.

For best results clear items from the beginning of time.

#7: Check for spyware and other junk

Windows users can make use of Google's Software Removal Tool. It might also be a good idea to scan the system using something such as Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware.

Mac users can check out Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware for Mac (don't believe the nonsense that Macs can't have viruses or malware - that may have been true a decade ago, but it's not true today).

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