Browser extensions are useful, but they can increase your browser’s memory consumption, make it take longer to open, and slow it down in general. But how do you measure the impact a browser extension has on your system?
Each browser offers its own ways to pin down an extension’s memory consumption, CPU usage, or startup delay. The exact information you’ll get depends on your browser.
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox doesn’t offer an easy way to view a browser extension’s memory usage. Rather than digging this information up yourself, you can use a Firefox extension that will display this information for you. Yes, it may seem silly that you’re installing yet another browser extension to see how much extensions are slowing down your browser, but you can always uninstall or disable this extension after using it.
To do this, install the
about:addons-memory extension and open the about:addons-memory page in a Firefox tab. You’ll see a list of the extensions you have installed, sorted by how much memory they use. This will give you a better idea of how much memory your add-ons use and which you may benefit from disabling. If you have an add-on with a memory leak, it may continue to use more and more memory the longer your browser runs — you can check this page later to see if any add-ons are consuming a large amount of memory.
Labels: browsing, fast, firefox, hack, memory, pc, trick, tweak, win7
