Regardless of what Google says or does, Chrome's memory consumption disappoints millions of users every day. There are many settings that aim to deeply modify that behavior, but in general it all comes down to closing tabs. Tab Wrangler is responsible for managing tabs, implementing their automatic closure after a certain time, and offering the user a convenient interface for restoring them.
Google Chrome, enemy of memory like few others. Its competitors aren't always much better, but Chrome's appetite for RAM is so well known that the web turned it into several memes. Mountain View promised us optimizations, and though I can't deny they're there... they're insufficient. One of the many problems modern browsers suffer is that they walk the path of bloatware.
They deliver irrelevant features for the average user, and don't provide any option to disable them completely. At the same time, the memory consumption tied to the number of open tabs easily gets out of control, but that's a point we can control. A few years ago we suggested The Great Suspender, however, today it's Tab Wrangler's turn.
Does Chrome consume a lot of RAM?
The most important feature of this extension is closing inactive tabs after a certain amount of time, adjustable in minutes and seconds. All closed tabs go to the corral, and a single click is enough to reopen them.
The lock feature isolates favorite tabs from automatic closing, and alternatively we can specify that Tab Wrangler works starting from a minimum number of tabs (for example, that it closes if it detects ten or more). Among the more advanced options we find auto-locking tabs that contain specific entries in their URL address, and the maximum number of tabs Tab Wrangler should remember.
Tab Wrangler is at version 6.9.0, was updated a few days ago, and works wonderfully with the latest build of Chrome. If the browser's memory demands have worn out your patience and your PC's performance, you should give it a try and install this extension.
