Windows 10 will apparently be the first platform where Google Chrome's biggest flaw finally gets fixed. This is thanks to a new feature in the operating system that allows for better (and lower) memory usage, which could correct Chrome's year's of being a RAM hog.
A post at Windows Latest points to a Chromium (which Chrome is based on) commit post (description of a work in progress) that explains the nutty gritty of how this will go down. This is a bit technical, but we'll make it as easy to understand as possible.
- The best laptops you can buy now
- Dell XPS 13 2020 review: Here's our verdict
- Just in: Nearly 80 Chrome extensions spied on users -- what to do
The Chromium post details the upside of adopting "segment heap" technology into Chrome, and poster Bruce Dawson says that "Experiments with per-machine opting-in to the segment heap for chrome.exe suggests that this could save hundreds of MB in the browser and Network Service utility processes, among others, on some machines," before noting that "Actual results will vary widely."
Dawson also notes that the highest gains will be found on "many-core machines," which likely means laptops with multi-core processors.
This change is owed to Windows because of how the Windows 10 May 2020 update saw Microsoft leveraging the segment heap tech in applications in order to "manage memory more efficiently." In fact, it enabled memory usage reductions of up to 27% in Edge, Microsoft's own Chromium-based browser.
As our friends at TechRadar point out, the 'segment heap' support is not in place yet, so don't expect to see changes in Chrome the second your machine gets Windows 10's May 2020 update (which it still may not be able to).
The experimentation in Chromium needs to finish up, and then make it through the multiple beta versions of Chrome. In the meanwhile, Chrome still needs to solve its other Windows 10 bugs.
Once that's all done, and Chrome finally becomes a more friendly citizen on the PC, expect Mac users like myself to wonder when macOS will join in the fight to stop Chrome from taking over all your system resources.
Of course, this all raises an interesting question: may Chrome not move as fast when you've got dozens and dozens of tabs open? Or can Chrome manage to stay speedy with less resources?
- Stay protected with the best Windows 10 VPN...
- ...or keep it all in-browser with the best Chrome VPN
