Chrome is experimenting with a new convenience feature that could also poke at your precious memory budget. In the latest Canary build, Google has added a toggle that automatically opens a Chrome window as soon as your PC boots, making the browser your first stop the moment you sign in.
What the New Startup Toggle in Chrome Actually Does
Early testers spotted an option labeled Open Chrome when my computer starts inside Settings > On startup. When enabled, it launches a Chrome window during system startup on Windows, skipping the friction of finding the icon or waiting for a cold start. The switch appears to be off by default and is rolling out gradually in Canary, the experimental channel where Google trials features before wider release.
The discovery comes via a well-known Chrome watcher who regularly surfaces in-development features. As with many Canary changes, availability can vary by device and region, and there’s no guarantee it will ship unchanged—or at all—to stable builds.
Convenience Meets Memory Pressure When Chrome Auto-Starts
For many users, the browser is the operating system. If your day lives in web apps—Docs, Slack, Jira, Salesforce—auto-launching Chrome can shave a few clicks and seconds every morning. It joins a familiar set of startup tools on Windows, where apps can register to run at boot and the OS labels their impact as Low, Medium, or High in Task Manager.
But Chrome’s long-running reputation for heavy memory use isn’t folklore. A fresh session with a few extensions can claim several hundred megabytes before you open a single tab. Add five to ten typical tabs—think email, calendar, news, and a couple of SaaS dashboards—and it’s easy to see usage climb into the multi-gigabyte range. On an 8GB system, where Windows may already reserve 3–4GB, that can quickly squeeze background apps and trigger disk swapping, slowing everything down.
Google has worked to blunt this perception. Memory Saver, introduced last year, can hibernate inactive tabs to reclaim RAM, and the company has invested in under-the-hood allocators and tab discarders to reduce overhead. Google has said Memory Saver can cut memory use on active sessions by up to 30%, depending on your workload. Even so, opening Chrome at boot moves that memory hit to the earliest moments of your session, when other services are also jockeying for resources.
The Bigger RAM Picture Behind Chrome’s Startup Timing
The timing is notable. Analysts at TrendForce have reported multiple consecutive quarters of DRAM price increases as manufacturers rebalance supply toward data center and AI memory, and consumer components feel the ripple. That cost pressure often makes its way into laptop configurations, where 8GB remains common on mainstream machines and memory is frequently soldered, leaving no upgrade path.
Meanwhile, Chrome still dominates desktop browsing—StatCounter pegs its share at roughly two-thirds—so any change to its startup behavior affects a huge population. The combination of higher memory prices, non-upgradeable laptops, and an auto-starting browser is why this seemingly small toggle invites outsized scrutiny.
How to Keep Windows and Chrome Startup Running Smoothly
If the feature reaches your device and you value a snappy boot, consider leaving it off—especially on machines with 8GB or less. If you do enable it, a few guardrails help:
- Use Memory Saver to snooze inactive tabs by default, and whitelist only the sites you truly need to stay awake.
- Limit auto-restoring tabs; continue where you left off is handy, but restoring dozens of tabs at boot can choke weaker hardware.
- Audit extensions and remove those you don’t use—many run processes on every session.
- Review Windows Startup Apps and disable any nonessential entries so Chrome isn’t competing with a dozen other services at login.
It’s also worth noting that rival browsers tread similar ground. Microsoft Edge offers a Startup boost that preloads processes in the background to speed first launch. The lesson is the same: faster access often trades for higher idle resource use.
Availability and What to Watch as Chrome Tests Progress
Because the toggle is in Canary, it’s squarely in testing territory. Google regularly iterates on such controls, tweaks defaults, and measures real-world impact before moving features to the Beta and Stable channels. If it graduates, expect enterprise admins to get policy levers to disable or enforce the behavior across fleets.
For now, the takeaway is simple: convenience is coming, but so is another potential tug-of-war for RAM at startup. In a market where memory headroom isn’t guaranteed—and may cost more than it did a year ago—being deliberate about what launches when your PC wakes up is the difference between a quick start and a sluggish morning.
