Browsers and Mail Turn On or Off Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge

Brink · Jul 1, 2022

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off sleeping tabs in Microsoft Edge for your account or all users in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

The Microsoft Edge web browser is based on Chromium and was released on January 15, 2020. It is compatible with all supported versions of Windows, and macOS. With speed, performance, best in class compatibility for websites and extensions, and built-in privacy and security features.

The sleeping tabs feature in Microsoft Edge makes background tabs sleep after two hours of inactivity by default in order to free up resources for active tabs, new tabs, and other applications on your device. Sleeping tabs will fade to indicate they’ve released resources. To resume a sleeping tab, click/tap on it like a normal tab. The tab will un-fade and your content will be immediately available.

To help you stay on task and limit potential compatibility issues, the following activities prevent sites from going to sleep:

The page is currently visible (active tab)
The page is currently holding a Web Lock or an IndexedDB transaction
The page is sharing its BrowsingInstance with another page
The page is your company’s internal (intranet) site
The page is currently being inspected by DevTools
The page is currently playing audio
The page is currently capturing a window or screen
The page is currently capturing user media (webcam, microphone, etc)
The page is currently being mirrored (casting, etc)
The page is on the user’s block list in Settings
The page is currently using WebUSB

References:

Learn about performance features in Microsoft Edge - Microsoft Support

Learn about performance features in Microsoft Edge, such as sleeping tabs, efficiency mode, and performance detector.

support.microsoft.com

Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge: Delivering better browser performance

Note: We’re in the process of deploying this feature starting with today's release of Beta 88, so it might be a little while before you see it in your channel and build. New to sleeping tabs? Read more in

blogs.windows.com

Sleeping tabs FAQ

What is sleeping tabs? To improve memory and CPU utilization of the browser, we've developed a feature called sleeping tabs. To free up resources for..

techcommunity.microsoft.com

Contents

Option One: Turn On or Off Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge for Current User from Settings
Option Two: Turn On or Off Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge for All Users using REG file

Option One

Turn On or Off Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge for Current User from Settings

1 Open Microsoft Edge.

2 Click/tap on the Settings and more (3 dots) button, and click/tap on Settings. (see screenshot below)

3 Click/tap on System and performance in the left pane. (see screenshots below step 4)

4 Turn on (default) or off Save resources with sleeping tabs for what you want. (see screenshots below)

Option Two

Turn On or Off Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge for All Users using using REG file

You must be signed in as an administrator to use this option.

This option uses the SleepingTabsEnabled policy for Microsoft Edge.

1 Do step 2 (Always on), step 3 (always off), or step 4 (default) below for what you want.

2 Always Turn On Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge for All Users

This will override and gray out Option One.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the REG file below, and go to step 5 below.

Always_turn_on_sleeping_tabs_in_Microsoft_Edge_for_all_users.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge]
"SleepingTabsEnabled"=dword:00000001

3 Always Turn Off Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge for All Users

This will override and gray out Option One.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the REG file below, and go to step 5 below.

Always_turn_off_sleeping_tabs_in_Microsoft_Edge_for_all_users.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge]
"SleepingTabsEnabled"=dword:00000000

4 Default User Choice to Turn On or Off Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge

This is the default setting to allow using Option One.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the REG file below, and go to step 5 below.

Default_user_choice_sleeping_tabs_in_Microsoft_Edge.reg

Download

(Contents of REG file for reference)

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge]
"SleepingTabsEnabled"=-

5 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

6 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

8 If Microsoft Edge is currently open, then close and reopen Microsoft Edge to apply.

9 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn Brink