Many of us spend hours each day interacting with a web browser like Google Chrome or Apple Safari. Those long sessions mean even small impacts on performance can end up making a big difference in terms of day-to-day productivity. Waiting just an extra half-second for each webpage to load can really add up over weeks, months, and even years.
Just like your computer in general, web browsers can slow down over time, as you start to do more and more with them. Whether that’s having more extensions installed or having more data cached to your computer’s local storage, it takes a toll.
You don’t have to just settle for this increasing sluggishness though, because there are ways to bring back the zippy performance that your browser had when it first started up. Some of these tricks are specific to one browser, but most work across the spectrum.
Installing updates
First and foremost you need to make sure you’re always running the latest version of your web browser of choice. This is so important that it’s now quite difficult to let your browser get out of date, in fact, without being nagged to install the upgrade.
Running the latest code means you have the newest features and the most up-to-date optimizations installed, and that you’re well protected against security exploits and nasty software bugs. It also means that your browser won’t get tripped up by any newer web technologies or complex web apps that it needs to work with.
Updates will be largely handled automatically, but you can check manually too. In Chrome, click the three dots (top right), then Help and About Google Chrome; in Edge, click the three dots (top right), then Help and Feedback and About Microsoft Edge. For Firefox on Windows, click the three horizontal lines (top right), then Help and About Firefox and in Firefox on macOS, open the Firefox menu and choose About Firefox.
When it…
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