If we have a hard drive, the computer will slow down, since the reading and writing speed of hard drives is much lower than that found in SSDs. In addition, the applications will not work as smoothly as when using only the device’s RAM memory.
Stop Chrome from running in the background
Despite the fact that Chrome is the most widely used browser in the world, it has always been characterized as a resource eater practically without any limit, especially when the number of open tabs is very high and regardless of whether it is in the foreground or background running on the computer.
Google, like other browsers, starts every time we start our computer, in order to reduce the waiting time for the user when they request its services by clicking on its icon or on a link if this is the default Windows browser.
When we close Chrome from the corresponding X, located in the upper right part of the application, the browser, doesn’t really close, but rather reduces resource consumption by staying in memory waiting to meet user needs. Fortunately, Google allows us to completely remove the application from the list of processes that are running in the background.
We can carry out this process directly through the browser configuration options or by accessing the Task Manager.
From the configuration options
First of all, we open Chrome and go to the browser settings by typing the following command in the address bar
chrome://settings
Next, we look for the System section, located in the left column and deactivate the switch Keep running apps in the background when closing Google Chrome.
Via Task Manager
Completely closing Chrome from the task manager is the best method to make sure that the application has really stopped run in the backgroundsince it disappears from the list of applications that are running at that moment and that are shown in the Windows processes.
To access the Task Manager, press the keys Ctrl + Alt + Del and in the blue window that appears, click on Task Manager. In the window shown below, within the Processes tab, we hover the mouse over Chrome and finally, click on the End task button located in the lower right corner.
with a script
The fastest method to completely close Chrome is creating a script that we can execute both from the taskbar and from the desktop. To create this script we are going to use the Notepad application and we will save the file with the name we want (it doesn’t matter) but with the extension “.bat” without the quotes.
Inside this file, we must write
taskkill /F /IM chrome.exe
Completely close Firefox when you stop using it
If we want to completely close Firefox and prevent it from running in the background, we have three options to carry out this process, options that we show you below.
Using Task Manager
First of all, we need to access the Task Manager, we press the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys (there are other methods, but this is the fastest). In the blue window that appears, click on Task Manager.
Next, in the window that appears, within the Processes tab, we place the mouse over Firefox and click on the End task button located in the lower right corner to prevent it from running in the background.
with a script
Just like we can use a script to close Chrome, we can also use it to close Firefox. We will use notepad to create a document that we will save with a .bat extension and that will include the following text.
taskkill /F /IM firefox.exe
We can also run the command from CMD by opening it with administrator permission and run it.
Reduce resource consumption by closing Edge completely
Edge is the default Windows browser, but it’s much more, since it’s also the Windows 10 and Windows 11 system base. Fortunately, Microsoft allows users to separate the operation, when it does it as a browser and as a base of the system, in this way, it offers the option to completely close the browser functionality.
Edge is based on Chromium, so like Chrome, it also continues to run in the background despite closing it by clicking on the X of the program. Like to close Chrome, we have three different options, to close Edge, we can use the same ones.
From the browser
Once we have opened the browser, click on the 3 horizontal points located in the upper right corner and access the configuration options. Next, in the left column, click on System. In the section on the right, we deactivate the switch Keep running extensions and apps in the background when Microsoft Edge is closed.
With Task Manager
To ensure that Edge closes completely, the easiest and safest option is to use the Task Manager, which we can access using the key combination Control + Shift + Delete and in the window that appears, click on Task Manager.
Next, in the Processes tab, we select Edge with the mouse and finally press the button Finish homework located in the bottom corner of that window to close Edge and all its background activity.
Using a script
Another method that we have available to quickly close Edge and remove it from background processes is to use the command by running CMD with administrator permissions.
taskkill /F /IM edge.exe
We can create an executable file with this command using notepad and save it with any name but using the “.bat” extension without the quotes. Next, we can create a taskbar or desktop shortcut so that we can close Edge with two mouse clicks.
