Undoubtedly, Google Chrome is the world’s most popular and most utilized web browser. Google Chrome has every possible positive you can think of in a browser. It has its negatives, and all PCs out there, even those not Macintosh, are a slave to how much RAM Chrome uses. If you use Chrome, you must know how much RAM it eats away and how slow it makes the computer.
You can learn this further by going to the task manager using Microsoft Windows. Google Chrome uses several processes to run itself, and you will have no idea what each of them does. However, the entire browser will shut down if you close one of these processes. Due to lousy RAM management, you will see frequent freezing and slowdowns if your PC is slow or using MAC.
Here, you will learn how to disable the multiple processes from Chrome that slow down your Mac due to high CPU usage. Unlike the operations in Windows, you will see that the “Google Chrome Helper” process uses the maximum amount of CPU. The process is like a parasite that feeds on Mac memory. You can see this when you open the MacBook activity monitor.
Upon closer inspection, you will see that this process feeds on your CPU cycle. Besides the activity monitor, you can also learn its existence from other symptoms – noisy laptop fans and high system memory.
This is a big problem since there are not many solutions on the web for it. If you Google the process alone, it will take you to multiple Google forums to explain what the Google Chrome helper does and what it is. There are also people there who complain about the process to much avail. Also, the Chrome FAQ portal has no solutions to help you fix the problem yourself! Quite frustrating, right?
What is Google Chrome Helper?
If you have been annoyed by this process for a long time, you are most likely dying to know what the helper does to take up so much CPU cycle. Like any “web helper” process, the chrome helper also opens up when you open the chrome browser. However, it does not bear its fangs until multiple chrome processes run simultaneously. Also, you can make the helper go mad when you download a chrome extension that is malware or is not protected from malware.
Moreover, you can also see the helper run amok when “chrome’s settings are configured to run everything by default.” This results from downloading multiple chrome plugins readily available on the internet. The fact that it helps you run Adobe Flash content is troublesome for the browser. You can see that a popup on the browser tells you to install Adobe Flash Player from their website.
While it is mandatory to have the flash player on multiple sites like Facebook, YouTube, and most children’s gaming sites, some sites harm your PC when running flash content. During this time, you will see the “Not Responding” message on the activity monitor when your CPU is pushed to the limit.
So, what is the Google Chrome Helper? Is it a tool that helps you understand things when you do not know what to do? No, you can say that embedded content helps the browser run things outside the browser. The helper is essential because there are plugins sometimes not rendered by HTML codes; therefore, the site’s contents need to be pulled from somewhere else.
Now, let us see how to stop it!
Disabling the annoying helper is not much hassle because it is easy. While killing the helper process will significantly improve your CPU usage, another trouble comes. Each time you run a flash content after the kill, you will need to allow permission to view “content.vtdecoderxpcservice.“
You can easily stop the process from inside Google Chrome settings. First, go to the activity monitor to monitor the process, then follow these steps –
- Without closing the program, close all your active chrome tabs.
- When you go to settings, you will see the “Preference” tab at the bottom of the menu; go there.
- Go to the advanced settings tab by clicking “Show advanced settings.” You need to go to the privacy settings that are at the top.
- After that, go to the “Content settings,” and you will see that the “plugin entry” is set to “Run Automatically.”
- You need to set this option to “Click to Play.”
While these settings will need you to allow permission each time you view flash content, it will keep you from installing any ad-blockers. This is because the site will need permission each time it wants to run ads in flash content. Quite handy, if I say so myself!
Some helpful ways to fix the high CPU usage on Macintosh
If you have high CPU usage, there is a 90% chance because of malware. Not only are unauthorized extensions prone to malware attacks themselves, but they also open paths to other malware entering your MacBook. You must remove this malware from your laptop first, even before thinking about the extensions.
To remove the malware from your laptop, use a premium anti-virus. You must follow this step before you try to fix the Mac problems. There are multiple ways you can fix the high CPU usage problem, and they are listed below –
First Method
- Like the Mac activity monitor and Windows task manager, Chrome also has its task manager. You need to access this manager to close down all the chrome processes.
- First, open up Google Chrome.
- Go to the settings by clicking on the three vertical black dots on the upper right side of the screen.
- Open “More Tools” and select Task Manager.
- There you will see which processes are feeding on the CPU the most.
- After you identify the processes, all you have to do is close them down.
Second Method
- Like the first method, this is also relatively easy. All you need to do is delete the unauthorized extensions hogging your browser. Follow these steps to do so –
- Open your browser and go to the settings you do in the first method.
- Open up “More tools”; however, this time goes to “Extensions.”
- All you need to do is remove the suspicious extensions using the remove button.
Third Method
- If you do not want to do either of the first two methods, then the third method will guarantee a solution. However, this method will completely reset your browser to its default state. Follow these steps if you want a complete reset –
- Open the browser and go to the setting by clicking on the three vertical dots.
- Go to the advanced settings at the button on the screen.
- Find the reset button and click on it.
These three methods will guarantee you a clean browser. While the third method is inconvenient, it does ensure the best possible solutions. However, it is advised that you try the first two methods before attempting the third one. That way, you fix your browser and keep all the saved caches and history intact.
What are all these Chrome Processes?
One question must have arisen in your mind; even though you have at most one or tab tabs in the browser, you have multiple chrome processes in the activity monitor. The obvious answer should be the Trojan virus or some other virus that no one knows of. While that can be true sometimes, these processes stand for something.
The main reason for this case is that Google runs its plugins and apps in different processes than its own to enhance the user experience and make use very fast. This also means the browser will not crash each time the web page hits. Also, since all these processes run parallel, the browser will not crash each time a particular web app or plugin stops responding.
Final Thoughts
The chrome helper does not fault itself; the external factors harm your laptop. As said before, the first thing you need to do to prevent most of these headaches is to set plugin permissions to “Click to Allow” and not “Run automatically.” This is what the Google Chrome helper is and how you should deal with it should the problem arise.
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