In 2024, a new feature called Sleep Tabs was introduced. This significantly reduces CPU and RAM usage. According to Microsoft’s Technology Community page, test results show that average memory usage is 26% lower when using Sleep Tabs.
The advantage of dormant tabs is that they wake up when you click on that particular tab.
When you open multiple tabs at once, the tab in the background consumes 29% more CPU than the inactive tabs in Microsoft Edge. With the new feature, this amount can be reduced. This saving should be very useful for notebook users for whom battery performance is important.
While each device is different depending on configuration, “sleep tabs” would improve the experience for Microsoft Edge users.
Freezing Technology
While this technology is not entirely new, it has evolved from the Chromium Project’s latest “freeze technology.” This feature interrupts the timers of recording scripts to minimize CPU and RAM usage.
This is different from the “Tab Reject” function, where the tab falls asleep completely. When you click on this tab, the page must be fully reloaded.
The “Tab Sleep” feature allows inactive background tabs to “go to sleep”. This frees up computer resources after a certain amount of time. The freed up memory and CPU can then be used for other tabs in the same browser or for applications or other programs.
Sleeping pills.
By default, inactive tabs fall asleep after “two” hours. If you don’t like this setting, you can change it in Microsoft Edge. You can even set the time to “five” minutes.
To distinguish between the “active” and “inactive” tabs, the “dormant” tabs have a fading color. To resume a dormant tab, simply click on it again and it will return to its normal state.
You can also add places to the list of blocks where you do not want to sleep. This ensures that these bookmarks always remain active. This is useful if you have background processes running for that particular site or tab.
Cons
It is also possible that some tabs that go to sleep may not become active as expected. Some websites may hang up to automatically put them to sleep after a certain amount of time.
However, the Microsoft Edge team has built this technology so that these tabs do not fall asleep at any point in such a scenario.
If you want to leave a comment about this feature in Edge, press Shift + Alt + I. Depending on the latest version of this browser (88.0.705.63), this feature is automatically enabled.
How can I manually activate the “sleep tabs”?
If you have not yet activated this feature, you can do so by following the steps below.
- Click on the “three” horizontal dots in the upper right corner.
- Click on “Settings > System.”
- On the right side you will see the inscription “Resource Conservation.”
- Activate the “Save resources with the standby tab” option.
- In this box, you can also leave comments with your thumb up or thumb down.
- Underneath that is the option to “Hibernate inactive tabs after a certain amount of time”.
- Set the time of inactivity from 5 minutes to 12 hours.
- “Never put these pages to sleep” is written underneath.
- You can always add the number of pages you don’t want to be put to sleep.
