- Feb 4, 2016
- 2,520
source: (bleepingcomputer.com): Using Extensity to Manage Your Extensions and Optimize Chrome
Chrome extensions are very useful pieces of software. They allow users to fix issues in Chrome that the developers do not plan on resolving, add new features to the browser, or increase security as you browse the web.
All of these benefits, though, come with a downside. This is an increase in memory, CPU utilization, and potential bugs that may occur due to conflicting extensions.
This is where the Extensity Chrome extension comes in. Extensity is an extension manager for Chrome that allows you to easily list, enable, & disable extensions installed in Chrome.
Even better, Extensity allows you to configure Profiles that consist of a specific group of enabled and disabled extensions. This way you can create a profile for web development or infosec that contain different groups of enabled/disabled extensions and switch between them as necessary.
Now I personally have 24 extensions installed in Chrome, with the majority disabled until I need them. To give a dramatic example of what Chrome's memory consumption looks like when all 24 extensions are loaded, you can see the image below.
With all of the extensions loaded, Chrome is now using approximate 446 MB with only one Window open to a single tab of Google. As you open more browser windows and more tabs, this memory consumption will increase and begin to use up a large amount of memory.
This is where Extensity comes in.