How to Find and Disable Resource-Hungry Chrome Extensions
Where to Find Resource-Hungry Chrome Extensions
Google Chrome is a resource-intensive browser. You might have already been used to closing your chrome tabs to free up space in your RAM, but what you dont know is that extensions run all the time in the background and they consume a lot of system resources. Here is how you can find and disable those resource-hungry Chrome Browser extensions.
Just like on your Windows or Mac computer, Chrome has its own task manager built-in. From here, you can see how many resources a tab, app, or extension is taking up.
To get here, click the “Menu” button found in the top-right corner of the Chrome toolbar and go to More Tools > Task Manager.
Here, you will find all the active extensions at the bottom of the list. You can also click the “Memory Footprint” tab to sort all processes based on the RAM usage.
Now, go over this list and look for the memory-hungry extensions. There could be some extensions that are taking up well over 500 MB of RAM. it is not unusual for small extensions to use up to 50-100 MB of your RAM.
You cannot disable or delete extensions from here (more on that later), but you can temporarily disable those extensions. If an extension has gone rogue and is using a lot more memory than it should, you can select it and then click the “End Process” button to stop it from running.
The extension would now crash, and you would not find it in the Chrome toolbar that holds extension shortcuts. When you restart the Chrome browser, the extension would work again. To reload an extension that is crashed, go to Menu > More Tools > Extensions and click on the “Reload” button.
How to Disable or Delete Resource-Hungry Chrome Extensions
During the process of hunting for resource-hungry Chrome extensions, you might come across some extensions that you notice you arent using again. You might also come across extensions that you will need to delete because they are using consuming too much RAM.
To do disable or delete any extension, click on the three-dot Menu button from the Chrome toolbar and then go to More Tools > Extensions.
Here, you will see all your installed extensions in a grid form. From the top, you can search for a particular extension.
To disable a Chrome extension, click the corresponding toggle button. The extension will disappear from the Chrome toolbar, and you won’t be able to access it.
Although disabled, the extension is still installed. If you want to delete it from Chrome for good, click the “Remove” button.
Then, from the popup, confirm your decision by clicking the “Remove” button.
The Chrome extension will now be removed and it won’t hog up your computer’s RAM anymore.
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