Reducing memory usage and extending battery life!? Enable "Efficiency Mode" in Microsoft Edge: Tech TIPS

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Table of Contents

Target: Microsoft Edge version 98 or higher

　While working in a web browser, it is common to end up with many tabs open. Even if each tab uses less CPU and memory, the web browser as a whole consumes a surprisingly large amount of resources.

　Therefore, in version 89 of Microsoft Edge (hereafter referred to as Edge), a function called "Sleep Tab" was implemented that puts tabs that have not been active for a certain period of time into a sleep state to reduce CPU and memory usage. (For "sleep tabs", see "Reduced memory usage by more than 30%!? Investigating Microsoft Edge's new function 'Sleeping tabs'"). By enabling "Sleep Tabs", inactive tabs will automatically go to sleep, and memory consumption can be greatly reduced.

Version 98 of Edge introduced an "efficiency mode" that can further extend battery life and reduce resource usage. This "efficiency mode" is disabled by default. So, let's introduce how to enable "efficiency mode".

　To enable efficiency mode, click the [...] icon on the right side of Edge's address bar, open the menu, and select [Settings]. On the Settings page that opens, select System and Performance in the left pane to open the System and Performance screen (you can also type edge://settings/system in the address bar).

On systems that can run on batteries, such as laptops, there is a pull-down menu like the one below in the "When to turn on efficiency mode" section in the "Performance optimization" section of the [System and Performance] screen. It should be. Select anything other than None to enable efficiency mode.

　For desktop PCs that do not support battery operation, the item name is "(?) to turn on efficiency mode", and it is simply an on/off switch. Even if the efficiency mode is "on", of course there is no effect of extending the battery life, but it is expected that the resource usage can be reduced.

　In addition, when I checked in several environments of the author, the "efficiency mode" function was not yet implemented in some desktop PCs, and this item was not found. In that case, you will have to wait for an Edge version upgrade.

　When "Efficiency mode" is enabled, if a tab is inactive for 5 minutes, the tab will automatically go to sleep, reducing resource consumption and power consumption. It means that you will be

　In addition, when the "efficiency mode" is enabled ([always on display] or the switch is "on"), the "Put inactive tabs to sleep after the specified time" The pull-down list is grayed out and the time cannot be set.

　If "Save resources on sleeping tabs" is also enabled, if you hover the mouse over a sleeping tab after 5 minutes of inactivity, "This tab will go to sleep to save resources." is on." is displayed. When "efficiency mode" is enabled, resource reduction seems to be performed regardless of whether "save resources in sleeping tabs" is enabled or disabled (if "fade tabs during sleep" is enabled, The sleeping tab turns gray to make it easier to understand).

　If you want to turn "efficiency mode" on and off as appropriate, you should display the [Performance] button on the toolbar (if you just want to switch occasionally, select [Performance] from the [...] menu can also be used). Open the [Settings] page, select [Appearance] in the left pane, and in the right pane, set the [Performance] button switch to [On] in the [Choose which buttons appear on the toolbar] column.

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