how to kill / restart Google Chrome?

[brotherS]

Hi,

I really like Google Chrome, the only thing I couldn't figure out is how to quickly kill* / restart it... since it uses lots of processes (to prevent itself from going down completely when a tab freezes) I can't just kill one process like I could with Firefox.

Any ideas?

*to free up some needed memory

[Curt]

Maybe you can talk f0dder into writing a "Trim-ChromeOnly-Memory"?
It would by far be the fastest way to free some memory.
If not, you can use his TrimAll:

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(...) If you need free RAM, don't overlook the brand new trimall by f0dder

Here you go  "trimall.exe" automatically trims all processes, has no GUI or status indication or whatever (thus the small size). It still won't trim system processes, and on a multi-user system it will probably only trim other people's processes if you have an administrative user account.

Direct link: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2794.0;attach=17116

It will free up a lot of memory in less than 2 seconds!

[f0dder]

Keep in mind that trimming is a pretty silly thing, since it does nothing that Windows itself won't do when it's finally necessary to do so - unused RAM is wasted RAM, and premature working-set trimming will most likely just put stuff in your pagefile unnecessarily.

As for killing chrome, perhaps SysInternals' "pskill" utility, which can kill processes from the commandline based on partial process name?

[bgd77]

You can use Process Explorer, also from SysInternals, instead of Task Manager. In Process Explorer, Chrome has a "parent" process and each opened tab appears as a "child" process of this "parent" process. You can completely kill Chrome by killing the "parent" process. There is also an option, "Kill the Process Tree", but it seems it is not necessary in this case.

[f0dder]

You can use Process Explorer, also from SysInternals, instead of Task Manager. In Process Explorer, Chrome has a "parent" process and each opened tab appears as a "child" process of this "parent" process. You can completely kill Chrome by killing the "parent" process. There is also an option, "Kill the Process Tree", but it seems it is not necessary in this case.

Hm, that must be the Chrome child processes doing some "uh oh my parent is dead" checking, then - child processes normally aren't killed by terminating the parent.

[bgd77]

Or the parent process is saying to the child processes: "I made you, I kill you".

Anyhow, the "Kill the Process Tree" option would be an alternative if this would not work.

[f0dder]

Or the parent process is saying to the child processes: "I made you, I kill you".

Doesn't get a chance to do that if you kill it from taskmgr/procexp, since it gets forcefully shut down with TerminateProcess()

[bgd77]

Ok, I'm no expert in this, so your explanation is the right one. Does this mean that the child processes are created in a special way? Or maybe the child processes know who their parent is and constantly interrogate it in order to see if it is still working?

Returning to the original question, maybe brotherS could tell us if he has found what he is looking for in the posts above.

[brotherS]

Thanks guys! I used the Process Explorer ages ago, sounds like that could work.

Before I test it (and lose some or all of my opened tabs - I'm using Chrome's "open all last opened pages again on program start" feature), would anyone be so kind and test it for me? 

[Paul Keith]

@brotherS,

Well, I'm not knowledgeable with any kind of testing but you could just use Iron Portable or Chromium Portable and you should be able to have a replica Google Chrome without it touching your actual Google Chrome files.

[Deozaan]

You can also use Mouser's Process Tamer to kill processes quickly.

[bgd77]

Thanks guys! I used the Process Explorer ages ago, sounds like that could work.

Before I test it (and lose some or all of my opened tabs - I'm using Chrome's "open all last opened pages again on program start" feature), would anyone be so kind and test it for me? 

I tested it and it works. The last tabs that were opened are restored. When I open Chrome, it detects that it was not shut down properly, and gives you the option to open the browser with those tabs. I'm using version 3.0.195.25

[brotherS]

You can use Process Explorer, also from SysInternals, instead of Task Manager. In Process Explorer, Chrome has a "parent" process and each opened tab appears as a "child" process of this "parent" process. You can completely kill Chrome by killing the "parent" process. There is also an option, "Kill the Process Tree", but it seems it is not necessary in this case.

Thanks guys! I used the Process Explorer ages ago, sounds like that could work.

Before I test it (and lose some or all of my opened tabs - I'm using Chrome's "open all last opened pages again on program start" feature), would anyone be so kind and test it for me? 

I tested it and it works. The last tabs that were opened are restored. When I open Chrome, it detects that it was not shut down properly, and gives you the option to open the browser with those tabs. I'm using version 3.0.195.25

This is the solution! Works nicely!

Thanks for your help!

[bgd77]

You're welcome.