Google Chrome has finally received an update that will stop it from consuming memory and becoming unstable on Windows 10 machines.

On its Chromium site, Google details how to make the Chrome browser's process termination more "clean" using a function called TerminateProcess. This basically means a smoother experience and a browser that is less likely to cause crashes on Windows 10.

Google Chrome has long been known for its ability to hog system RAM, especially when many tabs and windows are open in an application. This not only slows down the system, but also has the nasty side effect of potentially causing the browser to crash.

I can't count the number of times Chrome has become unresponsive or crashed to the desktop on a Windows 10 machine with less than 8 GB of RAM. For example, on a 5th generation Surface Pro with a Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM, Chrome consumes the majority of resources, making using the browser a rather tedious and unstable experience.

Additionally, after prolonged browsing with multiple Chrome tabs open, closing the browser can leave behind processes that consume system resources.

The TerminateProcess function is commonly used in Windows to unconditionally terminate a given process and all its threads; think of the TerminateProcess function as a way to completely kill an app and prevent it from running anything in the background. Think of it as a way to completely terminate the app and prevent anything from running in the background. In this way, system resources occupied by the app are freed up.

In other words, TerminateProcess should allow Google to allow Chrome users to close some tabs or the entire browser and immediately regain the computing resources they were using. Our understanding is that this should also make Chrome run more smoothly and consume fewer resources overall.

Google is still testing Chrome's use of the TerminateProcess function. However, we would not be surprised to see it in a new version of Chrome in 2021. In fact, we won't even notice this change other than a more stable Chrome experience on Windows 10.