How to Enable or Disable Tab Performance Detector in Microsoft Edge

Why Use the Performance Detector?

The Microsoft Edge Performance Detector helps you find browser tabs that are using too much computer memory or processing power. If your computer is running slowly because of Edge, this tool can help you identify which tabs are causing the problem so you can fix it and make your browser faster.

The Microsoft Edge Performance detector watches for browser tabs that use too much memory or processing power. When the detector finds a tab using excessive resources, it alerts the user to address the issue.

How Does the Performance Detector Work?

The Microsoft Edge Performance Detector watches your open tabs and shows a simple visual cue to let you know if they’re using too much of your computer’s resources. When tabs are running fine, you’ll see a green indicator, but if a tab is using too much memory or processing power, a red warning icon will appear.

Browser essentials

When Microsoft Edge detects that your background tabs are using too much memory or processing power, a heart pulse icon with a red dot will show up in the toolbar.

Clicking the Performance detector icon shows "High usage" for memory and CPU. The gauge turns red, indicating high resource use. A list then appears, showing specific tabs consuming the most memory or CPU.

Option 1Turn On or Off Tab Performance Detector in Microsoft Edge Settings

You can easily turn the Microsoft Edge Performance Detector on or off through the browser’s settings menu. Just open Edge, click the three dots in the top right corner to open the menu, select ‘Settings,’ then click ‘System and performance’ on the left, and finally choose ‘Performance’ to find the option.

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Click ⚙️ the Settings and more (Alt+F) button. It looks like three dots in the top right corner. Then ⚙️ click Settings.
3. Click System and performance in the left pane. Then click Performance in the right pane.
   

   If you do not see a left pane, click the menu button (three bars) at the top left. Or make the Microsoft Edge window wider until you see the left pane.

4. Under General, turn on or off Enable performance detector.

Option 2Turn On or Off Tab Performance Detector Using Registry [Requires Admin]

If you have administrator access, you can turn the Microsoft Edge Performance Detector on or off for everyone on your computer using the Windows Registry. This involves opening the Windows Terminal as an administrator and running a specific command, or directly editing a value in the Registry Editor, which requires careful attention.

Open Windows Terminal as an administrator and run the command below. Or you can go to the Registry Editor and edit the value directly.

This option uses the policy for Microsoft Edge.

Always Turn On Tab Performance Detector for All Users

This will override and gray out Option One.

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" /v PerformanceDetectorEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Always Turn Off Tab Performance Detector for All Users

This will override and gray out Option One.

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" /v PerformanceDetectorEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Default to User Choice for Tab Performance Detector

This is the default setting. It lets users control the Performance detector using Option One.

reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" /v PerformanceDetectorEnabled /f

More Information

Learn about performance features in Microsoft Edge – Microsoft Support Learn about other performance features in Microsoft Edge. These include sleeping tabs, efficiency mode, and the Performance detector.

Summary

The Microsoft Edge Performance Detector helps you spot tabs hogging resources, and you can control it through browser settings for your account or via the Registry for all users.