How Web Browsers Affect PC Performance
Websites these days can be heavy-laden with different elements – texts, video, audio, and stacks of images. Your computer needs to put in extra work to give you the output you’re anticipating. Thus, it can sometimes buckle under the pressure to handle browsers with multiple tabs with different content, and you can experience dips in its performance. This can be especially troublesome if you use browsers for work, and one of the main reasons to look for an alternative.
But how exactly do web browsers affect PC performance?
Here are 5 common culprits of reduced PC performance due to web browsers.
Active Scripts
Web pages often have complex active scripts that make your browser perform continuous and complicated calculations.
A web page may have an active script running in the background tab that uses up a considerable chunk of memory and CPU cycles. That can hinder your computer’s capability of processing and displaying a downloaded web page in another tab.
Some people blame the Internet connection when such a thing occurs, but the reason for the dip in performance happens on the computer itself.
Virtual Memory
Are you one of those people that open 25 tabs in five minutes? While you may believe you are helping yourself get the job done and gearing into multitasking mode, you often cause a slowdown this way.
What actually happens is that your computer’s virtual memory experiences a dip. Virtual memory is a block of space on your hard drive and an addition to the RAM – the system’s main memory. It’s used to expand the total amount of data your machine can process at any given moment. Usually, the inactive programs are cached to the virtual memory and reloaded once brought back up. That slowdown which nearly resembles a total freeze when you jump between tabs can be traced to the computer pulling the web page back into the main memory.
If you’re loading new web pages simultaneously, that can also hinder the computer’s capability of assembling and displaying newly downloaded pages. Once more, that does not affect your Internet speed, as well.
Browser Extensions
We are sure you mean well by all of those extensions installed on your browser. As much as you want to optimize the time you spend online with plugins and extensions, we have bad news for you – they may be causing a lag in your computer performance.
Sure, some of those plugins are unavoidable and useful. They block pop-ups and improve a web page’s readability and function, but at what cost? Each active plugin uses up both RAM and CPU (the central processing unit is a part of the computer that retrieves and executes instructions), so your machine experiences a slowdown.
If you notice that your computer displays a dip in performance each time you use your web browser, it may be wise to uninstall unnecessary plugins and extensions. Have some favorites among them that you are reluctant to uninstall? Disable them instead for the time being. The idea here is to stop as many needless extensions as you can from using up your machine’s resources.
Cache and Cookies
As you visit different pages on the Internet, your browser caches (a fancy word for “collects”) specific files that speed up your browsing experience. So, if you visit a website you’ve already been to, there are a lot fewer bits your browser has to download – because the cached files are already there.
Typically, that makes for speedier browsing. But it’s a good idea to clear your cache from time to time and start over. While your web browser should automatically handle the cache, it can become harder to manage and cause lags. To keep these issues at bay, erase cache and start anew. Don’t be surprised when you then notice a dip in browsing speed. It’s just the browser rebuilding its cache, and you should be back on track soon enough.
When you make the move of clearing your cache, your browser usually asks you if you want to do the same with the cookies, too. Cookies are chunks of information that sites link to your computer to identify you, your location, some of your preferences, and more.
Cookies rarely cause harm, but you should clear them occasionally to get rid of the corrupt and needless ones.
Outdated Browser Software
Overall, getting rid of accumulated cache and cookies is one of the best ways to speed up performance. Want to wipe the slate clean in a quicker way? Instead of erasing your cache and cookies, uninstall and reinstall your browser!
Chances are, you are running an outdated version of your chosen browser. By uninstalling it, you can get the newest updated version. That way, you will also get rid of corrupted data caches and needless plugins. But most importantly, you will have the most up-to-date version of your software. Having an updated version of a browser is so essential for fixing bugs and blocking security threats that browsers usually download updates automatically.
But to make sure, you should manually uninstall your favorite browser now and then.
An Alternative to Browsers
We know better than to advise you to keep your browser limited to one tab. That’s pretty much an impossible task, no matter how much we all try to curb our fondness of multitasking. But just as you won’t allow your room to get too cluttered, you should have the same approach with your browser hygiene.
Or, even better, switch to a dedicated work environment platform for work purposes. Focos offers all the intuitiveness of the browsers without all the clutter and distractions, allowing you to stay focused and productive while also unburdening your PC and freeing up its resources.
Conclusion
As we’ve seen, there are many ways how browsers affect PC performance. So, to keep computer-lagging at bay, keep your number of tabs to a minimum, update your browser regularly, clear cache and cookies, and use only your most needed plugins and extensions.
In other words, wipe those virtual surfaces and take out that digital garbage. You don’t want to bring the whole thing down and attract unruly pests, no?