Internet Explorer may not be the world's coolest browser, but when it comes to memory usage, Microsofts browser is a veritable miser compared to the Firefox and Pale Moon browsers. Here's how to speed up your browsing and your PC. There’s a non-violent arms race going on among PC makers and software developers. The PC guys make their systems beefier, the software guys make their stuff larger and more demanding of system resources. And that’s apparently what’s happening in the browser world, where some of my favorite browsers are becoming resource hogs. As it happens, I have plenty of memory in my Windows 7 system, so I haven’t noticed much of a slowdown. But some readers have, and I decided to put a number of browsers to the test to see which ones are using more than their share of resources. And I must say, I was chagrined to note that my favorite, Pale Moon, an offshoot of Mozilla Firefox, gobbled memory as hungrily as a starving rabbit in a carrot patch, while Internet Explorer (believe it or not) was as thrifty with resources as could be. Everyone’s system is a bit different, so if yours is slowing down, it’s worth performing this series of tests to see if your browser has too much appetite. First close all of the open tabs in the browser you want to test. That’s important because different Web pages, depending on the content they display and how they’re coded, use different amounts of memory. If the browser requires one open tab, go to a page that doesn’t have flash widgets or video running. Next open up the Windows Task Manager. In Windows 7 and Vista simply press alt-ctrl-delete, and select Start Task Manager. Then you go to the Process tab and sort by Image Name. When I did that, I found that Pale Moon is using 470,000K, or about 458MB, which is quite a lot. Chrome, by way of contrast, was 54,000K or almost 53MB. Firefox was using 128,000K, or 125MB and Internet Explorer used the least, just under 40,000K or 39MB. There’s another issue here, and it’s pretty geeky. There are actually two types of memory: one is what the process or application is actually running, called “private” and the other is “committed” memory, which is the amount of memory reserved for the process by Windows. So if you do things to reduce the actual memory usage, like closing tabs, private memory will decrease and the browser will probably speed up. But since the amount of memory reserved is still high, other applications may still run slower. If you want to get even deeper into this is, here’s an article that will tickle your geek bone. As I mentioned, many folks who have 4GB or more of memory in their systems probably won’t notice a slowdown. But if you have less, and your system is slowing down, try not to have too many tabs open at once. In Chrome, you can go to Tools and then Task Manager to see how much memory different tabs and extensions are using. Firefox has a similar, but harder to understand function you’ll find by typing “About:Memory” into the address bar. If you see an extension or add-on that consistently uses tons of memory, disable it. There’s also a free Firefox extension called Memory Fox that helps keep memory usage under control. You can download it here. And of course, closing and reopening the browser with all the tabs shut will release the memory and have you surfing at top speed once again. A final note: Memory usage is far from the only factor determining how fast a browser runs, which is why memory hog Pale Moon, as I mentioned in a post earlier this year, is still faster than its close cousin, Firefox. Related content News Amazon to lay off 9,000 more workers, including some at AWS The latest round of Amazon layoffs will impact AWS, Twitch, advertising and PXT, CEO Andy Jassy said. By Jon Gold Mar 20, 2023 3 mins Technology Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost What’s next for network operations Broadcom: 2023 Tech Trends That Transform IT By Serge Lucio, Vice President and General Manager, Agile Operations Division Mar 20, 2023 8 mins IT Leadership Networking BrandPost Digital transformation obstacles: Stubborn challenges, what to do about them Value Stream Management is an increasingly essential approach to strategic transformation initiatives. To help teams more fully capitalize on the opportunities it presents, Broadcom is holding its third annual VSM Summit. By Marla Schimke, Head of Product and Growth Marketing, Broadcom's Enterprise Software Division Mar 20, 2023 3 mins Devops Software Development Feature CEO directives: Top 5 initiatives for IT leaders As organizations change course with economic gyrations, collaboration between IT and business becomes priority No. 1 for CEOs. By Stacy Collett Mar 20, 2023 7 mins IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe