10 Chrome settings I always keep disabled

Default Google Chrome settings can hamper your browsing experience, compromise your privacy, and eat up system resources. That’s why I always disable the following settings when installing Chrome on a new machine.

Autofill and passwords

Like most browsers, Chrome lets you save personal information, passwords, and payment information, which it will then automatically fill in the next time you need it. While convenient, this feature poses a security risk because anyone with access to your device could misuse or scrape sensitive information, and a breach could leave your data in the wrong hands.

For this reason, I always keep autofill settings disabled. To deactivate them, click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner and select “Settings”. Next, go to “Autofill and Passwords”. In the Payment Methods section, disable the buttons for any information you don’t want the browser to record.

Next, open “Google Password Manager”, select “Settings” and turn off “Offer to save passwords and access keys”.

Pop-ups and redirects

By default, websites may send pop-ups containing advertisements, promotions and other intrusive content and use redirects to direct you to potentially harmful sites. Not only does this pose a security risk, but it can also disrupt your browsing experience. Fortunately, Chrome allows you to block pop-ups and redirects. I recommend disabling these options.

To block pop-ups in Chrome, go to Settings > Privacy & security > Site settings, scroll down to “Pop-ups & redirects” and select “Don’t allow sites to send pop-ups or use redirects.”

Preload pages

Chrome includes a feature that preloads pages in the background, loading certain links you’ve visited before clicking on them to open them faster next time. While this can speed up browsing and save time, it also consumes additional system resources, potentially affecting your browser’s performance. That’s why I prefer to keep it disabled.

To turn off page preloading, go to Settings > Performance, find the Speed ​​section, and turn off the “Preload Pages” option. Disabling this feature improves Chrome’s speed.

Third-party cookies

As you browse the web, third-party cookies track your activity and create a profile of your online behavior, which is then shared with third-party advertisers to target you with personalized advertisements. I consider this a significant privacy issue. To prevent trackers from following me and avoid intrusive targeted advertising, I block third-party cookies.

To disable them, go to Settings > Privacy & security > Cookies & site data, then select ‘Block third-party cookies’. Some websites may not function properly if this setting is disabled.

Camera and microphone permissions

When you visit websites that may require access to a microphone or camera, a pop-up asks for your permission to allow the site to use your hardware. This can appear even if you don’t plan to attend a meeting, and granting permission in error could allow others to hear sounds or see your face unintentionally.

To avoid this, I prevent websites from asking for these permissions and only enable them when I choose to provide access to specific sites. To disable these permissions, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Site Settings. Under Camera, select “Don’t allow sites to use your camera” and under Microphone, select “Don’t allow sites to use your microphone.”

Background apps

By default, Google Chrome is set to run apps in the background even after closing the browser. While this helps websites load faster, lets Chrome check for updates, and lets you quickly reopen the browser, it can consume system resources and drain your battery. For these reasons, I prefer to disable this feature.

To turn off this setting, go to Settings > System and turn off the “Continue running apps in the background when Google Chrome is closed” button. This will prevent Chrome-related processes from running in the background. However, this option is only available in Chrome for Windows, not Chrome for macOS.

Web notifications

When browsing websites, you may encounter pop-ups asking for permission to send notifications. If you click accidentally, these notifications can become a nuisance and even lead you to harmful websites. To avoid this, I disable the feature, ensuring that sites don’t send notifications even if I approve them by mistake.

To block notifications, click the three vertical dots in the upper right corner and go to “Settings”. Next, go to Privacy & Security > Site Settings and find “Notifications” under Permissions. Select “Don’t allow sites to send notifications” to prevent notification requests and keep your browsing experience distraction-free.

Hardware acceleration

Hardware acceleration lets Chrome use your computer’s GPU to handle tasks like video rendering or image processing, helping to lighten the load on the CPU. While this can improve your CPU and browser performance, I’ve found that keeping this feature enabled often causes crashes, especially when live streaming. Disabling it fixes this problem for me.

To avoid problems, I keep hardware acceleration disabled. To turn it off, go to Settings > Advanced > System and turn off “Use graphics acceleration when available.”

Automatic downloads

By default, websites are allowed to automatically download related files alongside the main file you download, which can save you time. While convenient, this also opens the door to downloading malicious files without your knowledge or consent. For this reason, I always block this feature to prevent websites from automatically downloading multiple files at once.

To turn off automatic multiple downloads, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Site Settings, then scroll down to “Automatic Downloads” under Additional permissions. From there, select “Don’t allow sites to automatically download multiple files.” Now you will be asked to grant permission before additional files are downloaded.

Continue where you left off

Chrome lets you set which pages or websites open when you launch the browser. You can choose to open specific pages, a new tab page, or restore all pages that were open when you last closed Chrome. I used to use the “Continue where you left off” option, but found that this posed a privacy issue because others could see the pages I was using during my last session.

The option to open a specific page or set of pages may also cause unnecessary startup load and malicious sites may be set to open automatically. For these reasons, I keep both options disabled and configure Chrome to only open a New Tab page on startup. To do this, go to Settings > On Startup and select “Open New Tab Page”.

Here are some settings I always keep disabled in Chrome to improve privacy, performance, and security. If you are using Chrome with its default settings, I recommend disabling them for a smoother and more secure browsing experience. If you find that disabling any of these settings negatively impacts your experience, you can always go back and undo the changes.