Chrome Bone

The xx-minute Chromebook melody-up

Brand your Chromebook faster, smarter, and more pleasant to utilize with these easy-to-follow annual steps.

As far every bit computers get, Chromebooks are nigh shockingly low-maintenance. Google's Chrome OS operating arrangement updates itself silently and automatically — as do most of the core apps associated with the platform — and it doesn't go gunked up and slowed down over fourth dimension, as traditional operating systems tend to do. There'southward no antivirus software to fret over, either, and little in the mode of complicated settings or compatibility concerns. More often than not, things "just work" — like, for existent.

But hey, you're a proactive person. Y'all like knowing your tech is e'er in tip-top shape. Plus, you have impeccable tastes in tech-related reading cloth (conspicuously). So let me share a piddling secret with you: Despite Chrome OS's minimal-budget nature, there are some things you lot can do to clean upwardly your Chromebook, articulate out its ataxia, and keep it primed for optimal productivity (and/or procrastination — equally important, as far as I'chiliad concerned). And they don't take long at all to power through.

Accept a few minutes at present to go through these steps, then rest piece of cake all year knowing your Chromebook is running at its best and ready to handle whatever tasks (and maybe even soft objects) y'all throw its mode.

Step 1: Uninstall unnecessary Chrome apps and extensions

Time required: iii minutes

If there's one factor that can slow a Chromebook down — not to mention open the door to unnecessary information sharing — information technology's having the system overloaded with apps and extensions y'all don't actually need. Such programs have the potential to run in the groundwork, where they sometimes eat upwards system resources faster than I eat up potatoes, and also to bog downwards the actual loading of web pages (specially when it comes to extensions associated with the browser itself).

Beyond that, unneeded apps waste product precious space in your device's local storage and ataxia things up visually, making information technology tougher to observe the stuff you actually use on a regular basis. That'southward why assessing your app and extension situation once a twelvemonth tin can go a long way in keeping your Chromebook cleaned upwards and capable of giving yous the all-time possible experience, without any asterisks attached.

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Start by opening a new browser tab and typing chrome:extensions into the address bar. Look at every item on that page and think carefully about whether you actually, truly still need it and how much value it adds to your life. For whatsoever items that no longer seem relevant, click the "Remove" button and send 'em a-packin'.

If you aren't 100% sure whether something is worth keeping or not, try this: Uncheck the blue toggle in the bottom-right corner of its card. That'll deactivate it simply leave it present, well-nigh like a shell, with all of your preferences and history still intact. That way, yous can go a 24-hour interval or two without it and run into if you miss information technology or even observe its absenteeism. If yous don't, go back and remove it entirely. If you do, go back and reactivate its toggle — no damage washed.

Stride ii: Check upwardly on your extension permissions

Time required: 5 minutes

At some bespeak in the non-so-distant past, Chrome gained a small but incredibly consequential avant-garde option for controlling your extensions: Instead of allowing an extension to see what you're doing around the web merely on a yes-or-no, all-or-goose egg ground, you tin can now get more than granular and specify exactly how and when an extension is (and isn't) authorized to access your browsing information.

If that sounds familiar, it should: Android saw a similar shift in its approach to apps and privacy just last yr, with 2019's Android 10 release.

On the Chrome Os front, your options now include allowing an extension to access your browsing data all the time, without any restrictions; allowing information technology to see what you're doing only on certain whitelisted sites; or assuasive it to meet and change what's in your browser just later on y'all've actively clicked its icon to activate it. You lot tin can as well, of course, opt tonever permit an extension to run across what you're doing on the web — but with some extensions, a genuine demand for that type of access exists.

Regardless of the specifics, you should exist the ane to decide how much admission whatsoever given extension is allowed — only it'due south up to you to go in and claim that level of control. To do so, over again typechrome:extensions into your browser'south address bar. Then, one by one, click the Details box for every extension listed on the page and expect for a line labeled "Site access" to encounter exactly what level of admission the extension currently has.

If you come across whatever extension that enjoys a higher level of admission than you lot think seems necessary, change its setting accordingly, ideally whilst cackling for consequence. Just proceed in heed that some extensions may not exist able to perform their intended functions without a certain corporeality of access, so if you lot meet a situation where an extension stops working (or keeps re-requesting a higher level of permission) after you've knocked it down a notch, you'll have to decide if it'due south worth keeping it around or if you'd be more than comfortable bidding it adieu.

Step 3: Uninstall or update Android and Linux apps

Time required: 3 minutes

Chrome Os isn't just nigh web apps anymore; these days, Chromebooks are capable of running both Android apps and Linux apps equally well as the regular ol' web-axial items. If yous've taken advantage of either of those possibilities, practice the same thing we did in our first step and pore over your collection to see apps which you however utilise and which oughta be removed or, a new twist in this step, updated.

Showtime past looking in your Chromebook's launcher — the "All Apps"-style drawer that comes upwards when you swipe up twice from the bottom of your screen or click the circle icon in the lower-left corner and then click the arrow in the fractional drawer that appears. For whatsoever apps yous're no longer using, correct-click or long-press 'em and select "Uninstall" from the bill of fare that appears. Chant a little incantation for good measure and then move on with your newly lightened (and perchance also enlightened) life.

Got all that? Adept. Now, for any Android or Linux apps you practice want to keep, brand sure they're upwardly to date — considering unlike regular web-axial apps, these programs don't always do that automatically. The Android half is like shooting fish in a barrel: Just open upwardly the Play Shop, the same fashion you would on your telephone, and expect for the "My apps & games" option in its main menu. And then follow the prompts on the screen that comes up to download and apply whatsoever pending updates.

Linux apps, as usual, are a picayune less user-friendly: Y'all'll have to go into your Chromebook's Terminal app and type sudo apt-become update && sudo apt-become upgrade into the prompt (totally intuitive, right?!). That'll seek out and employ whatsoever available updates for any Linux programs you have in place.

Pace 4: Optimize your fourth dimension-saving shortcuts

Time required: iv minutes

Chrome OS is full of hidden shortcuts and time-saving possibilities — including some super-useful things that require simply a few minutes of your time to prepare once or revisit and then they'll work to your greatest advantage.

First up is the system tray — that dock-like bar of shortcuts at the bottom of your screen. Accept a moment to make sure the apps or processes you open up virtually often are in that expanse; if they aren't, drag 'em out of the launcher and put 'em in place. And remember: The tray doesn't have to be limited only to formal apps. Yous can too add in shortcuts to a commonly accessed website (be information technology something like Gmail or Google Bulldoze or even your company's internal content management system) by opening the site in a regular browser tab, clicking the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner, and selecting "More tools" followed past "Create shortcut."

At present, the part most relevant to our purposes: Keep in mind that you tin open each particular in that list from anywhere in your system by pressing Alt and and so the number key corresponding with its position. Pretty handy, eh?

Next, salvage yourself even more valuable seconds past setting upwards on-demand shortcuts for your favorite spider web-based search functions. You tin can exercise that for virtually whatsoever site with a search pick, whether it's Google Images, Twitter, or Thesaurus.com.

Hither's the fox: Go to the website in question and perform a search — and so copy the URL that ends upwardly in your address bar with the results. With Thesaurus.com, for instance, if y'all search the site for "fish," y'all'll be taken to https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/fish.

Now type chrome:settings/searchEngines into your address bar to pull upwardly Chrome'southward custom search engine settings. Click the "Add" push button, blazon in the search engine proper name (like "Thesaurus"), assign it to whatever keyword you lot want (like "th"), then paste that URL from a moment ago into the URL field — simply take out the actual search term and replace information technology with %s. So in our Thesaurus.com example, you'd end up with https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/%s.

Chromebook Tune-up: Custom Search Engine JR

In one case that's done, you can simply type your keyword into Chrome'south address bar, hit Tab, and then type in whatever term you desire to search for — and as shortly as yous hit Enter, you lot'll exist taken directly to the associated site's results folio for that term. I utilize this constantly, for all sorts of purposes (such every bit searching for synonyms of "fish").

(Bonus tip: You tin can also set up a custom search engine without the search parameter in identify to create a shortcut for whatever site or internal Chrome office. On every Chrome-including organisation I utilize, for example, I tin type cs into the accost bar to pull up Chrome'due south settings in a jiff. I can blazon c to pull up Computerworld.com or a to pull up AndroidIntel.cyberspace. You lot get the thought.)

Finally, if you take sure words or phrases you find yourself typing over and over — addresses, phone numbers, recipes for baba ganoush, and and then on — consider setting up a Chrome-OS-friendly text replacement tool. That volition let yous create custom keyboard shortcuts for all your favorite phrases and can save your stunning fingies from so much needless pecking. There'south ane app in detail that actually does the job well.

Step 5: Prepare yourself upwards for speedy universal voice input

Time required: ane infinitesimal

Information technology's easy to get spoiled with the effectiveness of voice input on your phone — then why not bring that same speaking power to your Chromebook? Yes, indeedly: Chrome OS has a piddling-known choice for organisation-wide dictation, and it works whether you're using your device as a laptop or in a tablet-like country.

All you've gotta do is enable it: Open upwardly your Chromebook's settings (by clicking the clock in the lower-correct corner of the screen and so clicking the gear icon in the panel that pops up). Whorl all the fashion down to the bottom of the settings screen and tap "Avant-garde." Meet the "Accessibility" header? Click the "Manage accessibility features" option beneath that, and so actuate the toggle side by side to "Enable dictation (speak to blazon)."

And that's it: You'll now run into a small microphone icon in the lower-right corner of your screen, next to the notification panel. Tap it anywhere, anytime, and and then but start a-yammerin' abroad. Your words will testify up on your screen — in any field you take focused, no matter what app or process you're using.

Pace 6: Clean up and connect your cloud storage

Time required: 3 minutes

Chromebooks don't tend to take a ton of local space, so take a infinitesimal to open your device'south Files app and clear out any ataxia you lot no longer need.

All set up? Spectacular. This adjacent part's equally like shooting fish in a barrel: We're gonna connect your Chromebook's Downloads folder to the cloud so that anything you download will automatically sync with your Google Bulldoze storage and thus be available wherever yous might need it — on your Android phone, on a traditional desktop computer, or even on another Chrome Bone device. (Chrome OS is all nigh this kind of automatic syncing and device-agnostic access in general, simply this is one area where it oddly doesn't practise that past default.)

So here'south the plan: Type chrome:settings into your browser's toolbar, select "Advanced," then find the line labeled "Location" under the "Downloads" header. Click "Alter" and select a binder (or make a new folder specifically for downloads) within your Google Bulldoze storage.

Easy, right? At that place'due south nothing more than to information technology: Annihilation you download on your Chromebook volition be saved to Drive and available anywhere else you sign in from this moment forward.

(Bonus tip: You tin take this same concept a step further by setting upwards your Android phone and whatsoever other computers you lot apply — Windows, Mac, whatever — to likewise sync their downloads with that same Drive binder. That'll create a single net-based downloads folder that keeps everything you download in one universally accessible place, no thing what device you're using. Go ahead and have a moment to marvel over what a wondrous notion that is, then brand your merry mode over to this guide of mine to get started.)

Footstep seven: Set your eyes up for success

Time required: 1 minute

Last but non least, a quick bit of tune-upwards that'll take some of the strain off your peepers so you lot can meliorate focus — on Very Important work documents, Very Important Winger videos, or whatever other Very Important content you might exist viewing. A relatively recent update to Chrome OS added an incredibly beneficial Android-built-in visibility characteristic, y'see, and it'due south well worth your while to enable.

It's chosen Nighttime Calorie-free, and it adjusts the temperature of your device's display to make it less brilliant-white and glary in the evening hours (or any other time you find yourself in dimly lit conditions). It's so impossibly sensible, yous'll wonder how yous ever lived without it.

You lot tin activate Chrome Bone's Night Low-cal way with a fast tap in the Quick Settings console — the Android-reminiscent interface that appears whenever you click or tap the clock in the lower-right corner of the screen — only the more advanced selection resides deep within the bowels of the Chrome Bone settings. (Apologies for the choice of phrase at that place. I hope information technology really isn't that bad.)

Just open up those trusty ol' organisation-level settings in one case more than, and this fourth dimension navigate to "Displays" (under the "Device" header) and look for the "Night Light" department at the lesser of that screen. There, you lot tin can set an automatic schedule for when the Night Light mode should turn itself on — based on specific times of solar day or even on when the sunday sets and rises. Your eyes will thanks.

Chromebook Tune-up: Night Light JR

And with that, my dear comrade, your Chrome OS melody-up is complete. So what at present? Well, goodness gracious, you've got no shortage of enticing options. If you're withal hungering for more than fresh Chromebook knowledge, cheque out my recent collection of Chrome Bone Assistant tips. Or recall almost expanding your desktop horizons and taking the relatively new Chromebook Virtual Desktops characteristic out for a spin. Oh, and if you oasis't yet tackled your almanac Android phone tune-up, by golly, go to it.

Otherwise, sit back, relax, and bask your newly polished and optimized Chrome Bone device. And go take hold of yourself a pastry, too, why don't ya? You deserve it.

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[Android Intelligence videos at Computerworld]

Contributing Editor JR Raphael serves up tasty morsels about the human being side of engineering science. Hungry for more? Join him on Twitter or sign up for his weekly newsletter to get fresh tips and insight in your inbox every Friday.

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