The Invisible Resource Hog
When you click the red ‘X’ to close Google Chrome, you might assume the browser has completely shut down. However, by default, Chrome is designed to continue running quietly in the background. It does this to ensure that Chrome apps (like Google Chat or specific extensions) can continue to receive notifications, and to make the browser launch slightly faster the next time you open it. The downside is that this background process consumes valuable system memory (RAM) and CPU cycles, which can significantly drain a laptop’s battery or slow down a low-spec computer even when you aren’t actively browsing the web.
Forcing a Complete Shutdown
To reclaim your system resources and stop Google Chrome from automatically running background processes after the main window is closed, you must disable the background apps feature in the system settings.
Open Google Chrome, click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner, and select Settings. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, look near the bottom for the System tab (you may need to click “Advanced” first if you are on an older version). In the main System settings panel, locate the toggle switch labelled Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed. Click the toggle switch so that it turns grey (Off). From now on, when you close your final Chrome window, the application will completely terminate, freeing up all associated memory and processing power until you explicitly open it again.