Tag Archives: chrome

Google Chrome being unresponsive or unusually slow? Here’s a fix!

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In recent weeks I’ve been finding my favourite browser, Google Chrome, walking on thin ice. It used to be a seriously speedy browser dancing from page to page… OK, cut the fairy tale. Nonetheless, it was getting increasingly slow performing basic tasks like opening new tabs and launching video playback. It even seemed to cause mouse lag when multiple tabs were open.

Nonetheless, I was fiddling with settings and finally seem to have found a reasonable solution. It seems hardware acceleration has been a relatively new feature for Chrome (available from early 2014-ish). but many seem to be reporting this has led to Chrome becoming slower rather than faster.

Try turning it off using the instructions below and see if it makes a difference.

  1. Type chrome://settings into your address bar. Alternatively, click on the Google Chrome customize button (far top right button in Chrome with the 3 lines, then click Settings)
  2. Scroll to the bottom and click Show advanced settings…
  3. Scroll all the way to the bottom and find the System section. Untick Use hardware acceleration where available. Chrome will tell you it’ll need to restart, so do that by clicking restart (or closing Chrome fully and reloading it)

Try browsing to some sites now or opening some new tabs. I noticed an immediate improvement myself, but let me know if it makes any difference for you.

Google Chrome 6 brings cleaner interface and minor new features

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Google Chrome was recently updated to it’s latest version – version 6.0. The new version includes a few minor updates.

The interface has been cleaned up a little since 5.0, with the main navigation controls looking slightly more seamless. In addition, the address bar no longer shows the “http://” part of the URL. At first I thought this would be annoying, but there are exceptions to this rule which make it more practical.

  • If you copy and paste a link from the address bar, Chrome automatically replaces the “http://” in the URL. This avoids any problems with using URLs in social networks or placing them in IM conversations.
  • If you go to a secure site, Chrome replaces the “https://” in the URL. This avoids any user confusion when purchasing products online.

With exception to those minor new features, there isn’t much to know. There is a new form feature which allows you to save personal details into the browser, so that you can sign up and pay for products with ease.

In addition, Google claims that there are javascript improvements with the new version together with extension sync (similar to bookmark sync but for extensions).

It is also worth noting that Chrome is now 2 years old. Happy Birthday Chrome. It was actually launched on September 2nd, 2008. I can remember trying the first Chrome beta and immediately switching from Firefox.  I haven’t gone back since!

You can grab the version by going to google.com/chrome or heading to “About Google Chrome” from within the browser.

Chrome 5.0 brings host of new features

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Google today released their latest version of the growing web browser, Chrome. The new version includes a large range of new features.

I’m very pleased to know that Chrome now synchronises browser settings, as well as bookmarks, to the syncing server. This means that when you use Chrome on multiple computers, you take your whole browser with you. Nice touch.

There’s also a really nice selection of HTML functions – including drag and drop (ie you can drag your Gmail attachments to your Documents folder).

In addition, great news for Mac and Linux users – Chrome 5.0 is a stable version! It’s about time!

Oh and finally, Google have set that from the next release of Adobe Flash (10.1), they are planning to automatically include a full compatible version of Flash with Chrome every time it is installed. That way, if you don’t already have it, Google will automatically install it for you when you install Chrome.

Head to google.com/chrome for the new version, or upgrade automatically from your browser!

Google Chrome OS looks interesting…

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It has been announced that Google will be releasing a brand new operating system, called the Google Chrome OS. The operating system will be very simple according to many sources, as it will be initially aimed at netbook users.

There hasn’t really been a confirmed release date, but guesses start from as early as tomorrow. However, Google has mentioned on their blog to stay tuned for more updates in the Autumn.

Google has said that they will be launching various web-based apps for the system, which will be great for computers short of hard drive space and RAM. Also, Google wants the apps to run on Windows and Mac too, so their audience should expand even further.

Google already has some brilliant online apps such as Google Docs, so having these available on other operating systems should be easy.

I think having another OS in the collection could have consequences to some other Linux versions such as Ubuntu. Linux version such as Ubuntu have had a big part in the netbook world, but Windows XP has also had increased popularity.

I think Google will have think about the fact that if it was my decision, I’d just install XP. And I think a lot of other people would think the same. Google is going to have one hell of a job to win people other.

But on the other hand, with the success of the Google Chrome web browser (now being regularly used by over 30 million users – according to Google), maybe they have a chance. We’ll have to wait and see.

Google release first developement test of Chrome for Mac and Linux

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Google has today released the development build of Google Chrome available for Mac and Linux.

Google has posted a blog post about this here.

It’s not even a beta build so I wouldn’t recommend testing it unless you are absolutely desperate. Google has said the features are very limited – there isn’t a print feature yet. It really is very limited. You’ll be nagged with warnings that the program is not for general use as well, so consider whether you really want to use it.

If you are dieing to have a play with it, use the link above and download it from the Chromium blog. Have a go and see what you think, but if I were you I’d wait for a beta build rather than a development build.