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Annoying fact is that every major browser silently installs itself into the startup process when you enable any browser push notification on Windows (with Edge
by noirscape 4y ago
Annoying fact is that every major browser silently installs itself into the startup process when you enable any browser push notification on Windows (with Edge being enabled for this by default iirc).
If you're wondering why your only 2-year old Laptop is slowing down when you boot it up - this is why. Chances are that Edge, Firefox and/or Chrome all three decided that they should have the right to run a full instance of themselves when you boot up your PC because you enabled a notification for a site that doesn't ever send any to begin with.
Browsers are heavy things to boot up (not to mention that in potato RAM environments, they eat through RAM like there's no tomorrow). To be clear, browsers being heavy applications is fine, it's one application where people tolerate it because of how versatile the browser is, but it is extremely frustrating when it results in the computer taking 5 minutes to sign in, when all they needed to do was quickly revise a Word document.
The result is that people end up writing off perfectly serviceable laptops for something that is easily disabled in the task manager.
This sorta thing really should get a big warning popup that if you enable it, it probably will end up slowing down your PC. I can't exactly celebrate the fact that all three major browser engines now pester users into slowing down their PCs.
Otherwise, if your relatives/friends are complaining their laptop is slow (and you're the designated IT person), enjoy the free advice.
- kitsunesoba 4y agoIn the same vein, I feel like persistent web workers need to be surfaced to the user more visibly than they are now, perhaps as a primary settings tab or something, and with periodic clean-up prompts from the browser (“foo.xyz has been running in the background for Y days without being used, would you like to stop it?”) because it seems to me that as things are currently at up, they’re gonna pile up indefinitely since there is no management to speak of. It also just seems kinda nutty that something that started running without my explicit permission can just hang around however long it wants to.
- mavhc 4y agoWhy are you booting your laptop so often? Surely once a month or so to install updates is enough
- noirscape 4y agoNon-technical people turn their laptop off when they're not using it, because it eats up power and they often don't have the willingness to burn electricity bills on a device they don't fully understand how to use. This isn't about me, this is about regular computer users, who make up by far the biggest crowd of people.
- TRiG_Ireland 4y agoI generally turn things off when I'm not using them. Don't you?
- cbeach 4y agoThis is only a Windows problem. I never need to reboot my Mac unless there's a major OS update.
- hospitalJail 4y agoWhat do I disable in the startup? I could not find anything mentioning Edge, firefox or chrome.
- zagrebian 4y ago> every major browser silently installs itself into the startup process when you enable any browser push notification on Windows Don’t they already do that for automatic background updates anyway?
- easton 4y agoYes, but usually they have a smaller updater instead of the entire browser always having to run in the background. Guessing that’s what OP is complaining about.
- zagrebian 4y agoThe entire browser shouldn’t have to run in the background just to receive push messages. If a browser really does that, that’s pretty bad.
- noirscape 4y agoFirefox doesn't, they do this when you boot up the browser (always fun to boot up a computer that's been sitting unused for a few months and seeing the updater for a few seconds). Chrome iirc has two update mechanisms, the first being Google Update which is a different application that isn't as resource heavy (and is also used to update applications like Google Earth) and the second being similar to the Firefox update mechanism, but it instead happens in the background while you're using the browser (with an orange exclamation mark when the update is ready to be installed to inform you that the browser needs to be restarted). Safari updates always have been tied to updates to macOS/iOS, with all the benefits and issues that entails (no automatic updates whatsoever outside of OS updates).
- tsimionescu 4y agoThe Chrome update detector mechanism also does another "fun" thing: it prevents use of your camera (and probably mic too) if it sees an update is available. But, obviously, it doesn't tell you that this is why your camera isn't working. So, if you are trying to join an interview or exam and your camera and/or mic aren't working, check if you happen to have a small orange excalamtion point somewhere in your Chrome UI, chances are that's the reason.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoThis is a Windows problem. I can cold boot and have Firefox up in 30 seconds in Linux.
- explaininjs 4y agoAn HTML renderer, in only 90,000,000,000 clock cycles? Verily I say, technology has come a long way.
- ingonealan3 4y agoOh shush, and just go type "lynx" into your beloved green glowing terminal /jk
- bloopernova 4y agoIt's not just an HTML rendering engine. Heck, even a rendering engine is very complex these days.
- marginalia_nu 4y agoBe ware that cold booting isn't actually cold booting anymore, but more like the suspend feature of old. You need to restart the computer (or pull the plug) to shut it down for real. It's part of why laptops can't hold a charge anymore.
- cesarb 4y ago> Be ware that cold booting isn't actually cold booting anymore, but more like the suspend feature of old. You need to restart the computer (or pull the plug) to shut it down for real. Not on Linux, which is what the parent poster is using. This "shut down means hibernate, you have to press restart to actually shut down" behavior is a Windows-only novelty.
- JohnFen 4y agoAlthough you can configure Linux to do this, if you're feeling masochistic.