Disable Plugins
By default, when you install Google Chrome, many unnecessary plugins
are installed and enabled. Plugins help Chrome process special types of
content, such as Flash, Java, Silverlight, or Windows Media files, but
most of them aren’t even important to your daily browsing. Plugins can
slow down the performance of Chrome, but you can disable plugins you are
not using. To do this, type “about:plugins” (without the quotes) in the
address bar of Chrome and press Enter.
NOTE: You can safely disable every single plugin, but you may want to
keep Flash enabled, as a lot of sites use Flash to display menus, show
videos, etc. Also, if you watch Netflix in Chrome, you need to keep the
Silverlight plugin enabled. You can always enable a plugin again if you
need to.
Disable Extensions
A list of installed plugins displays on the current tab. Scroll
through the list and click the Disable link for each plugin you feel you
don’t need.
NOTE: Plugins cannot be deleted or uninstalled, only disabled. An
exception would be a plugin that was installed as part of an extension
and you uninstall the extension. Then, the plugin is automatically
removed.
Disable Extensions
Extensions are small programs available in the Chrome Web Store that
add extra features and functionality to Chrome. They can be very useful,
but if you end up with a lot of extensions installed, the browser’s
speed may be negatively affected. You can easily disable extensions
without uninstalling them to gain some speed. Some extensions install a
button on Chrome’s address bar, and those can be quickly disabled by
right-clicking on them and choosing Uninstall from the menu.
