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Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming hardware, she’s covered just about everything.

Whether it’s breaking news about the latest AMD NPUs or creating video tutorials on social media platforms, Jasmine has contributed to the world of AI and tech in a variety of ways including interviewing the CEO of Razer, AMD’s Director of Product Marketing and the VP of Lenovo. Passionate about gaming and PC technology, she has built countless computers, keyboards and other peripherals - knowing them inside and out.

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If you feel like your Chrome is an absolute memory hog, you’ve probably looked at your 100 open tabs, closed them all, and found that your browser is still eating 12GB of RAM. One thing you might have overlooked is the fact that you’ve got 25 background extensions still running even after you’ve closed Chrome.

Every single extension is a tiny program that injects code into every single page you visit. Even when closing your browser, these extensions can continue running in the background as they process information or just stay active for the next time you open a tab. Google’s new extension architecture, Manifest V3, has effectively crippled many useful extensions like advanced ad blockers. It might be time for you to rethink your entire workflow. Here’s how I got started.

The risk factor

Your information can be sold onward

The first major red flag that I encountered was the security and privacy issue. Most extensions require a ‘read and change all your data on the websites you visit’ permission, which I just didn’t feel entirely comfortable with. For those who aren’t reading all the terms and conditions of the extensions at install, because I mean, who does, it can often mean you’re giving them permission to not only read your data but probably sell it on to other companies too.

Alongside this, there is a common trend of legitimate extensions being sold to shady companies that then turn them into adware/spyware overnight. Meaning an existing extension you have used for years and trusted may suddenly turn into a virus on your computer that can steal all of your information.

The solution to this issue is to move to native apps, so your browser no longer serves as a gateway for third-party scripts and doesn’t eat up memory while running in the background. Native apps are those you install directly on your PC rather than running them in your browser. Typically, any extension category that you’re looking for likely has a native way.

If you’re looking for a password manager, then Bitwarden or One Password have native apps that apply a system-wide autofill. For the countless ad block extensions, you can instead download uBlock Origin Lite, which does exactly the same thing natively. For those who use Grammarly, you can install it as an application so it works across your entire PC. Or opt for one of the alternatives, like the LanguageTool desktop app.

No matter what your extension needs are, there are native options for all the required categories. These won’t hog your memory and can’t act as gateways for third-party scripts.

A faster, cleaner PC

Cleaning out browser extensions could give you a performance boost

Another way to speed up your PC and clean up the existing UI is to use Chrome’s ‘Install Page as App’ feature rather than adding them as browser extensions. This allows you to install a web page as a desktop app in Chrome. This opens it in a clean app window, separate from your regular browser tabs, and creates a shortcut for quick access.

This is perfect for the websites you visit frequently, like Todoist, Notion, or Spotify, and eliminates the need for these extensions to run in the background. Once you close your browser, the extensions won’t remain open and keep using up your memory. Another benefit of this is that you get a cleaner, distraction-free UI without address bars, bookmarks, or tonnes of little icons at the side of your search bar.

After doing a purge like this, you might notice a difference in browser snappiness. It might run a lot quicker as it doesn’t need to load the countless extensions, and you’ll notice that it doesn’t hog as much RAM when you’re not using it. Alongside this, extensions are notorious for waking up the CPU, and switching to native apps often results in a 10-15% improvement in battery life on laptops, too. Another major difference you might find is that you get fewer browser crashes and page unresponsive errors, as all of your extensions don’t have to run each time you open a new web page.

It’s a lifestyle

Once you’ve done it, you won’t go back

Opting for a minimalist browser lifestyle can really make a major difference to your workflow. Browsers are for browsing, and the operating system is for working. Audit your extensions and see which ones you haven’t clicked in months, and just get rid of them. If you don’t want to get rid of them, maybe swap to having them installed natively, or install the pages as apps instead.

You’ll notice that your browser runs a lot quicker, you have so much more memory to utilize, and you might even notice your battery life increases, too. I have been using some of my browser extensions for over a decade, and I’m so glad that I finally made the switch. You can too!