When you use any web browser, including the Chromium version of Microsoft Edge, every website you open on a new tab consumes a certain amount of memory, and the more tabs you open the more system memory the browser will use.
Although you can use Chrome extensions, such as “The Great Suspender,” designed to reduce the memory footprint of the browser, Microsoft Edge has a new “Tab Freeze” feature that freezes those tabs that you haven’t been interacting after five minutes freeing up memory and processor being consumed by the tab.
In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to enable Tab Freeze to save memory when using multiple tabs on the Chromium version of Microsoft Edge for Windows 10 and macOS.
How to enable Tab Freeze on Edge Chromium
To enable Tab Freeze on Microsoft Edge, use these steps:
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Open Microsoft Edge.
Quick note: This feature is still under development, as such you’ll need to download and install the Canary version of the browser. -
Type the following path in the address bar to open the Flags settings in the new feature location:
edge://flags/#proactive-tab-freeze
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Use the drop-down menu on the right and select the Enabled option.
Edge Flags enable Tab Freeze -
Click the Restart button.
Once you complete the steps, when the tab has been running in the background for five minutes, the feature will freeze the tab reducing the amount of memory in use.
These steps are meant to enable Tab Freeze using the Flags settings, but eventually, the feature should ship enabled automatically with Microsoft Edge.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].