Google Chrome Slowed to a Crawl This Morning,

[MineralMan]

right after Microsoft installed some sort of Graphics management program. Right after that, Windows popped up a window trying once again to get me to switch to its Edge browser. Was MSFT trying to force me to switch to Edge? I don't know, but after restarting Windows, things did not improve.

Finally, I cleared my Chrome cache and everything returned to normal speed. I'm still not sure what happened exactly, but clearing out the cache often corrects problems in Chrome. It did so this time, again. It's just odd that the drastic slowdown happened right after that Windows program installation.

So, if you experience such a slowdown after Windows automatically installs something and then prompts you to make Edge your default browser, try clearing your Chrome cache and see if that fixes it. it did for me.

[Tetrachloride]

1. Good job on clearing cache.

[MineralMan]

4. That's always a good move if Chrome has some sort of problem.

It's my first thing to try, before I start worrying too much. It often does the trick, particularly if everything about Chrome slows down and gets balky.

I'm not sure I understand quite why that is, but clearing the cache is a safe thing to do at any time. Clearing history is a little iffier, so I don't try that first.

I'm still wondering about this morning's coincidental problem, since it occurred immediately after Microsoft installed that graphics manager thing without any notification to me. I manage normal updates by updating only when I don't need to be on the computer for a while. This was a different thing.

Anyhow, it's fixed, but I thought I'd share the information, just in case someone else has the problem.

[OhZone]

2. I hate Edge -

I use my downrevved Firefox or my up-to-date Waterfox mostly.

and then I use Chrome if the above don't work right.

Edge has me on edge. Ha

[48656c6c6f20]

10. Um. You hate Chrome or just Chromium based browsers?

Oh wait, you hate Microsoft Chromium based browsers?

[OhZone]

18. Yeah - just MS browsers.

[CTyankee]

3. MM, I find it difficult to write in Google docs after writing for a very long time in Word. Am I

crazy? For instance in a cut and paste move, in Word it's smooth operation, in Google docs it's one of those awkward Ctrl moves.

Is Word considered good for the writer's nimble mind where Google docs is tiresome and interrupts the flow of the creative mind on the keyboard?

P.S. my son is an ADA, so a prosecutor and he says he uses Google docs all the time. My guess is that he means in legal documents. To me, a writer about art history, that sounds like an oxymoron.

[MineralMan]

5. I've never used Google Docs. I'm a loyal Word user.

In fact I've been using Microsoft Word for MSDOS and Windows since the very first version. As the primary Word Processing reviewer and columnist for PC World, back in the 80s through 2000, I had to test and review every available word processing programming. Word was the one I chose for my own writing, though, always, and still is.

Like most people, I use only a fraction of its capabilities 90% of the time, but can use any part of it if needed.

[CTyankee]

11. My daughter is my book designer and she will accept my newest book in google docs only.

I now have hired a young computer teacher to teach me writing in google docs. He does it all the time on his day job which is a computer tech person at a local college. He deals with some faculty professors who are as inept as I am, but that is the older bunch. The young profs already possess basic computer skills, far different from my days in grad school. I am verklimpt.

[MineralMan]

15. You'll get it all sorted, I'm sure.

I've published a non-fiction few books on Amazon. In the Kindle version, you can include embedded internal links within a book, and it converts Microsoft Word bookmarks automatically into those internal links. So readers of my Kindle versions can tap on a link to jump to the content in the book at those links. I use it in tables of contents and the index to make navigation easier. When I create the version for the publish-on-demand paperback versions, though, those internal links disappear, as they should. I create all of my Amazon books for the paperback version in a pre-designed 6" X 9" format (my own template). That way, the paperback version is done. Doing the conversion to Kindle format is pretty much automatic when I upload the docx document, since Kindle books have no fixed formatting, and the cover design also translates smoothly into the Kindle version.

Even so, a very, very careful examination on a page-by-page basis is still necessary in both versions. That can be a time consuming process if you've fiddled much with your formatting as you create the books. I've learned what doesn't work and what does, though, so that simplifies the process. Fixing stuff has to be done in the original Word docx file, so the fewer changes that are needed, the better. I write and edit with the end book always in mind, to prevent errors that might have to be corrected. My first Amazon book was a nightmare to actually publish, but subsequent ones were simple, since I avoided the problems I encountered on the first one.

[c-rational]

6. MM - How do you clear the cache...turn chrome off then on?

[MineralMan]

7. Go to settings in Chrome and then search for cache.

Choose "Clear browsing data" in the window that shows up.

That'll take you to where you can clear your cache.

[Ohio Joe]

8. Agreed... Clearing cache should be done regularly...

This article:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-clear-your-browser-cache/

Tells how to clear it on different browsers. The article says that you should not have to do it often but I disagree and suggest you do it at least once a week or almost any time a site gets wonky. Basically, cache stores sites you have been to in order to make them load quicker but if the site changes something (and it does not have to be major changes) it can not quite work as intended.

[ItsjustMe]

9. I use Wise Disk Cleaner

It cleans out the cache on all your browsers.

It works great and It's free.


https://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-disk-cleaner.html

[FakeNoose]

12. The worst thing about the Edge browser

... is that Microsoft no longer asks you if you want Edge. They just give it to you in the latest update, and you CANNOT uninstall it.

I've done all I can to disable it, and it can't spontaneously spring up on my screen whenever it wants to. That was annoying and frustrating, but I finally stopped it. At least until the next unannounced update, but we'll see.

[Ohio Joe]

13. Try this...

https://www.tomsguide.com/how-to/how-to-uninstall-microsoft-edge

Good luck!

[FakeNoose]

16. Good to know!

Thanks I'll give this a try.

[Xoan]

14. No problem here.

[BootinUp]

17. Edge definitely has some issues right now

I had been using it to stream paramount video, just in the last week or two it started dropping frames making the playback jump and stutter. Chrome meanwhile is fine. This is a new system all up to date.

[CTyankee]

19. I'm not even sure I know what Edge is, altho my computer guy installed it. Tell me, what am I

missing by using Edge (I don't even know what it is)? I usually spend half of my day in research where I am very, very happy. This book, which is about the relationship of music and art, takes me from the 15th century with the Ghent Altarpiece to the 20th century to album covers, Ernie Banks reimagined Sugar Shack on Marvin Gaye's album "I Want You." It has been a joy to research!

My teacher has gotten me pretty far but not far enough to get the job done and ready for my daughter's magic touch. She did a wonderful job on my first book...