Tweaking the best performance out of Chrome.

jayv2251 · 04 Jul 2017

I'm not all that familiar with the inner workings of Chrome as I've only been using it since January. I'm using it mainly to work from home doing various contract jobs. In between those jobs I also work Amazon's Mechanical Turks program. To aid making this program work faster and more efficient, some folks have taken to writing add-on scripts using JavaScript. These scripts make "Turking" more profitable by constantly refreshing frequently. Doing so allows myself and other workers see new work being posted practically in real time.

If you look at my profile, I realize I don't have a power house computer. And just short of building an i9 based system loaded with 64G of high speed gaming ram and two of the fastest SSD drives set in Raid 0, and have Chrome set up in 2 or 3 32" monitors at the same time, I need to do some tweaking of my current system. I can if I wanted to, jump from 6G to 16G, if that is recommended.

About the only thing I cannot do at this time is change my network. My family and I live with my wife's uncle, so the cable is in his name. Since this affects my ability to work, I'd be looking at a better cable modem, and a much newer router as well. So any suggestions on how to make Chrome any more efficient or faster, would have to be strictly software based. Suggestions?

Fafhrd · 06 Jul 2017

Try the Canary build - see following link.

Chrome Browser

You can install this alongside your normal version of Chrome - they do not interfere with each other in use - but both will sync bookmarks and other preferences from your Google account.

Canary build is the latest version from the Chrome Labs, usually stable, but not always free of bugs, so don't use it as your only browser. It is a few build version numbers ahead of the Chrome on general release, and has cutting edge improvements, not all of which may be adopted in the release version.

You may need to check the "Customise and control Chrome" settings (3 vertical dots in upper right of address bar line) if it changes to a dark green circle with an arrow pointing upwards - it shows that a new build has been downloaded and it requires a relaunch for the new build - if you are doing something critical on Chrome, continue and relaunch when finished, otherwise it takes just a few seconds, but being Canary build remember the caveats about the occasional bugs - which are very rare and minor in my experience, but still crop up!

Keep extensions and add-ins to a minimum or none, and don't let other programs you install add Browser Helper Objects, different search engine preferences, Java, Macromedia Flash or other XXXware to your system.

I don't use adblockers, but I run a host file modification: Google "Blocking Unwanted Connections" for more information. This blocks in and out connections to known malware sources, and speeds browsing, and clears the screen of distracting panels.

In Chrome advanced settings, follow 1234 below and uncheck "Automatically Detect Proxy settings":

Tweaking the best performance out of Chrome.-image.png

I think the bug was fixed, but this used to delay Chrome opening pages whilst it detected possible proxy settings on each new page it opened (actually a dirty trick by Microsoft to make Chrome appear slow, by foxing one of Chrome's security features).

That's all I can think of for now.

swarfega · 06 Jul 2017

It depends on your budget for the router. The Nighthawk range are nice but a bit expensive.

jayv2251 · 06 Jul 2017

Fafhrd.

I appreciate the suggestions, but I cannot use an unstable version of Chrome. I use Chrome for work and it MUST be stable. For one job I load Tampermonkey, which then loads several scripts I use to perform one of my jobs. I did find a website that suggested several changes to Chrome, including a few experimental ones. This has made Chrome a bit faster, but I'm looking to tweak every bit out of it I can. One setting I can't find in my version of Chrome, ( Version 59.0.3071.115 (Official Build) (64-bit), is how to "Enable Prefetch Resources" Since Tampermonkey is installing javascript files for me, I'm thinking this would be a very good setting to enable. I just can't find it in settings--->advanced--->privacy. It's just not there.

swarfega,

I wish I could do that. I've been looking at top of the line cable modems and routers. Not about to whine, but my current living situation and lack of income prevent me from doing those upgrades right now. It's more important to buy used car and move into an apartment. Buying routers or computer equipment not associated with work is not very high on my list of "must haves" right now. Perhaps in the near future, once I find more work.