Microsoft is releasing a “sleeping tabs” feature in its Chromium-based Edge web browser, which will drastically reduce memory and CPU resource usage.
The new feature is rolling out to all users running Microsoft Edge Beta 88 after it was initially introduced in September as a Microsoft Edge experiment.
“To improve the browser, we’ve introduced ‘sleeping tabs,’” the Microsoft Edge team said.
“Just as a good night's sleep allows you to remain productive and rested the next day, sleeping tabs help optimize your browser's performance by freeing up resources for the tabs you actually use.
The feature will force inactive tabs to “go to sleep” automatically to free up system resources (memory and CPU) after a preset period of time, resources that can be redirected to recently opened tabs, existing ones , or other applications.
How sleeping tabs work
“Sleeping tabs are based on the core Chromium “freezing” technology,” Microsoft senior program manager Eleanor Huynh explained when the feature was first announced.
“Freezing pauses a tab’s script timers to minimize resource usage. A sleeping tab automatically resumes running when you click on it, which is different from dismissed tabs, which require the page to fully load .”
This improves Microsoft Edge 's memory and CPU usage , resulting in better browser performance and increased battery life .
Sleeping tabs will reduce memory usage by 32% on average, in most cases, and will result in about 37% lower CPU usage compared to non-sleeping tabs.
“When using sleeping tabs, it’s possible that some websites may not work as expected after sleep,” the Microsoft Edge team added. “To keep you flowing, we’ve built heuristics to detect these scenarios and prevent these tabs from going to sleep.”
By default, inactive tabs will be “suspended” automatically after two hours of inactivity, but this time period can be changed by going to the “Settings” page available at edge://settings/system.
Waking up the tab is simple, you just click on it, and you can also add websites you don't want affected by this feature to a block list on the same page as the settings.
