Every time we start up our computer, as a general rule, and with increasing frequency, one of the first programs we run is the browser. These are applications that give us access to the Internet, as you know, and that usually remain in operation for a good part of the session with the computer. That is why now we will talk about how to configure the browser to save battery .
As you can imagine, what we are talking about is something that becomes especially important if we work with a laptop. If there is something that especially characterizes these teams in particular, that is the autonomy that they present to us. That is why on certain occasions the fact of being able to save battery and gain autonomy in programs as used as these will be of enormous help .
Precisely because of all this that we are commenting on, that is why below we will talk about how to achieve it in the three most used proposals of the moment. Here we refer to the alternatives Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft‘s Edge. And it is that one of the most negative points of this type of applications in particular, is the high consumption of resources that they do on many occasions. This means that the autonomy of the team could be seriously affected. For all this, in these lines we will give you some useful solutions for the aforementioned programs.
What influences the battery consumption of the browser
As you can imagine at this point, there are several factors that can have a negative impact on the autonomy of a team . And it is that with the passage of time, these programs have gradually become more complex. This is largely due to its enormous use, and the increasing demands of its billions of users .
All this power and versatility that they present to us, how could it be otherwise, translates into a greater consumption of PC resources, including the battery. We are going to see therefore some of the common factors to all these programs that increase the use of battery in a laptop.
Don’t install many extensions
One of the common factors that normally most affect all this that we comment on, is the massive use of extensions . These are sometimes installed without any control in the browser. With them we manage to increase the functionality of the software, its security, or even improve its appearance. What we do not take into account is that these elements, for the most part, remain running in the background, thus consuming resources.
Also, as we install more and more extensions, this becomes more serious, something that we can avoid by removing the unnecessary ones.
Avoid using multiple tabs
On the other hand, an element used in a massive way due largely to its enormous usefulness, are the eyelashes . These allow us to open a multitude of websites in a single window and interact with them in a more fluid way. But of course, more times than we think, we leave these running for hours, without really needing them.
Well, something we should know is that they consume a lot of battery power, especially if they are playing ads, videos, audio, etc. Therefore this is another use that we should limit as much as possible.
Parameters to configure in browsers
In addition, the aforementioned programs such as Chrome , Firefox or Edge, have some own parameters that their creators implement that can affect here. Generally, we can customize these in one way or another to give priority, either to the performance of the program, or to the low consumption of resources. Everything will depend on the needs of each one or the situation in which he is.
Without for example we work with a laptop but have an electrical connection at hand, we prioritize performance. Otherwise, we can sacrifice part of it to increase the autonomy of the PC while we navigate.
Save battery life in the main web browsers
Thus, below we will tell you how you can improve autonomy , and therefore save battery, within the three main browsers. We refer specifically to the proposals of Mozilla, Google and Microsoft. Of course, in all of them we want to keep in mind the aforementioned tabs and extensions to save battery in the browser.
Configure Chrome to save battery
Well, we will start with the most used program of this type that is none other than Google Chrome. Thus, to eliminate those extensions that we will not need in the future and stop consuming resources, we go to the main menu of the program . Once in it, we go to the option of More Tools / Extensions.
Here we can deactivate or eliminate all those elements of this type that we consider dispensable. But that’s not all here, since we also have the possibility to activate the new CPU Throttling function in order to limit the CPU usage in all open and inactive tabs for more than 5 minutes. To do this, all we have to do is type Chrome: // flags in the address bar. In the test screen we search for the term heavy-ad so that two entries appear. Now we only have to set the enable-heavy-ad-vention call as Enabled, while heavy-ad-privacy-mitigations we set it as Disabled. To finish we restart Chrome so that the changes take effect.
Improves the autonomy of Edge
On the other hand, we find the proposal presented by the software giant Microsoft, Edge. And it is that in addition to the aforementioned measures to save battery in the browser that we talked about before, this proposal presents us with another interesting functionality. Specifically, we refer to a parameter that with its name already tells us everything: Save resources with waiting tabs .
Actually, this will allow us to put the inactive tabs into sleep mode after a certain time in order to improve autonomy. As you can see, this is something that we can customize to the maximum, and that will be very helpful in this regard. Therefore, to configure this functionality in Edge, we go to the program menu and click on the Settings option.
Thus, in the window that appears, in the left panel of it, we click on System, where we will see the function that interests us. Now we can activate it, as well as specify the time period for the tabs to become inactive.
How to save battery in Firefox
On the other hand, we find the proposal presented by Mozilla with its Firefox . As we told you before, here we find a specific function called Performance that allows us to prioritize either the operation of the program , or the consumption of resources. The first thing we do here is open the Options section of the application, and go to General.
Going down a bit in the window we see the aforementioned Performance section. By default we find the option Use recommended performance settings, active. But at the same time we have the possibility to deactivate it. This way we can use hardware acceleration when available and free up computer resources and save battery life. In addition, we can limit the content processes, since using multiple processes increases performance, but more resources are consumed.
Therefore here we have the possibility of increasing or decreasing this limit of processes up to a maximum of eight; the lower this value, the less battery is consumed and we are able to increase the autonomy.