The easy trick to make your PC run way better using a Google Chrome extension. Photo / 123RF
The easy trick to make your PC run way better using a Google Chrome extension. Photo / 123RF
If you're like me, when you spend time online it doesn't take long until you have an almost endless number of tabs open.
It's like an internet version of hoarding — you never know when you might need that tab. I'll definitely come back and read that later, you tellyourself.
And sometimes it's just so darn easy to go down the rabbit hole of hyperlink after hyperlink until you have a ridiculously crowded browser page with so many tabs bunched together you can't tell what they are anymore.
The problem is, if you're using popular web browser Google Chrome, it doesn't take too long before it starts struggling under the weight of all those tabs.
It's a good browser but compared to most other internet browsers, Chrome is super hungry for computing power and eats up your PC's RAM like a starving man at a buffet.
Thankfully, there are some tricks you can employ to free up some of that RAM and make things run much smoother. Perhaps the best one is a third party plug-in which changes how Chrome works such as The Great Suspender.
You get to keep a hold of the tab without have to use up all the computer memory.
The IT guys here at news.com.au put me onto it, and it's made such a noticeable improvement to my browser performance that I feel I need to share it with you.
It works as a lightweight extension that helps reduce Chrome's memory footprint for users by automatically suspending unused tabs to free up system resources.
"Tabs that have not been viewed after a configurable length of time will be automatically suspended in the background, freeing up the memory and CPU being consumed by that tab," the plug-in page says.
It's completely free but it does have a very occasional pop-up that lets you donate if your gratitude compels you to do so.
You can set the time limit for when tabs go to sleep (and release the much-needed computing power) and if you want to bring it back, you just have to click the page.
It's easy to control how you want the settings.
To download the extension, all you need to do it hit the "Add to Chrome" button on the top right of the Great Suspender page.
You are then taken to a screen that lets you choose how long it takes for tabs to be rendered dormant — from 20 seconds to two weeks — as well as other settings like never suspending tabs that are playing audio, for example.
You can also whitelist specific URLs or domains that you do not want to suspend. And that's all you need to do. The extension will be installed and start working its magic.
There are other plug-ins out there that do the same sort of thing such as Tab Wrangler and One Tab.
