As we all know that Google Chrome is one of the most used web browsers in the world. It has an amazing user interface for you to easily search almost anything on your web page.
For those who don’t know, Google Chrome has small software programs called Extensions. These extensions are designed to enhance your browsing experience as you can customize them to suit your preferences.
Plug-ins in Google Chrome are the various kind of secret Chrome (://) pages. Usually, every web browser has plug-ins, and in Chrome you can view them by typing chrome: //plugins .
However, Extensions and Plug-ins in Chrome are well-known for their advanced programs but sometimes may endanger your security or slow things down while browsing. To avoid such issues, you might want to disable these unwanted plug-ins and extensions.
In this post, we’ll discuss how you can disable extensions and plug-ins in Google Chrome.
How to Disable or Delete Extensions in Chrome?
Well! The process may sound tricky, but it is just a few clicks and keys away. There are two ways to disable Chrome extensions- either using the main Chrome menu or by entering a particular URL in Chrome’s navigation link bar. Let’s see how:
- Go to Chrome’s main menu button (the three vertical dots to the top right corner), or you can even enter the following URL in the Chrome’s navigation bar:
Chrome://extensions
- Now from the drop-down menu, select, More tools and in its small window, choose the Extensions option
- A new window of Extensions opens up. Here you can toggle and manage by unchecking the Enable extensions box to disable its functions
That’s not all! You can even hit the Trash icon to uninstall and remove any unwanted extension in the list. However, you can re-enable the disabled extensions which are still available but placed as a black and white icon.
The switch of the disabled, yet installed extension turns to ‘ Enable’ instead of ‘ Enabled .’ You receive a confirmation box where you have to approve to remove or uninstall a Chrome extension permanently.
Many users have reported that some of the corrupt extension doesn’t show up in the extensions list and becomes a little difficult to uninstall an unwanted extension. You don’t have to worry as we have listed a fix to solve your problem.
- Close the Google Chrome page
- Search for your Default folder location. Mostly for Windows Vista- Windows 10,
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
- Now, in this Default folder , you can see an additional folder of Extensions .
- Double-click on it and open the Chrome extensions folder
- A list of folders appear in cryptic names
- Open the folders and click on the subfolder which has the extension’s version numbers
- Once you open the version number folder, make sure you know that which extension it belongs to
- You can even open the manifest.json field with a code editor from your PC
- If the problem is with that extension, delete the whole folder (it’ll be in a cryptic title)
- Once you have deleted, reboot your Google Chrome browser
This troubleshooting process fixes your problem. Although, this problem is a rare case and if it still doesn’t work, use the Google Chrome Cleanup Tool. It automatically scans and uninstalls any problematic software form Chrome.
How to Disable Chrome Plug-ins?
For those who are using the Chrome 57 version, Chrome has removed the option for you to manage your plug-ins, so we suggest you skip this step.
However, if you are using Chrome 56 or earlier version and you want to disable Chrome plugins, firstly enter chrome://plug-ins . It displays all the details of every plugin available on your Chrome which has its title, version, location, description and also the option to toggle it from always run to disable mode.
It includes Adobe flash, Chrome PFD viewer or Google Widevine. Here’s how you can disable the unnecessary Chrome plug-ins
- Head to the Chrome’s main menu and go to Settings
- In the Settings window, Click on Show advanced settings or scroll down and click on ‘Advanced. ’
- Search for Content Settings option and tap on it
- A list of plug-ins appears, here click on the plug-in you want to disable and hit the toggle slider to disable the enabled plug-in from your Chrome
- You can input certain websites (plug-ins) in the Allow and Block categories which you want to enable or disable
To add more to it, you can stop websites to use plug-ins by clicking on the arrow beside the Unsandboxed plug-in access option in the Content Settings page. Also, enable the slider of ‘ Ask when a site wants to use a plug-in to access your computer.’
Some of the Chrome users have reported that the disabled plug-ins are getting re-enabled automatically on reboot. In that case, you have to delete the plug-in folder itself from the local system of your PC. Here’s how:
- Close your Chrome browser
- Locate the plug-in folder - C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\[Chrome Version]\WidevineCdm\.
- Delete the folder
- Now, restart your Chrome
The plug-in won’t be loaded by Chrome anymore. You might have to repeat this method every time you update your Chrome.
Good Job! You have successfully disabled corrupt or unnecessary plug-ins and extensions in your Google Chrome. Still having issues with your Chrome browser? Do let us know in the comments section below.
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