Some days our navigator wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. If you’ve ever encountered poor speed, frozen widgets, and other common forms of disappointment, we feel you and have the solutions you’re looking for.

Some of these solutions will be obvious, and others may surprise you. For this quick tips guide, we’ll go with the four main market competitors: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. Tap or click here for more details on privacy-focused browsers.

Read on for five ways to optimize your browser and avoid slow performance.

1. Clear your cache and cookies

Cache is a bucket of preloaded images, page content, website cookies, and other information that your browser collects through temporary memory as you browse the web. Cache allows frequent visits to websites to load faster, but at a cost.

RELATED: 5 Ways to Keep Your Online Searches Private

Lighten your load by clearing cache and cookies. It’s easy to do and one of the top recommendations for poor browser performance.

How to Clear Cache on Chrome

• On your computer, open Chrome.
• At the top right, click on the three stacked dots.
• Click on More tools > Clear browsing data.
• At the top, choose a time range. To delete everything, select All the time.
• Next to “Cookies and other site data” and “Cached images and files”, check the boxes.
• Click on Erase data.

How to Clear Cache on Safari

• Click on the Safari tab at the top left of your screen and choose Preferences in the drop-down menu.
• Select the Advanced menu tab that appears.
• At the end of the tab, select the Show Develop menu in menu bar box and close the Preferences menu.
• Press the To develop Safari menu tab at the top of the page.
• Click on Empty caches in the drop-down menu.

How to Clear Cache on Firefox

• Click on the three lines menu button to open the menu panel.
• Click on Story and select Clear recent history.
• Beside Time range to eraseChoose All from the drop-down menu and select Hidden in the list of items. Make sure the other items you want to keep are not selected, then click the button OKAY button.

Here’s how to clear browsing data in Microsoft Edge

• To select Settings and more > Settings > Privacy, Research and Services.
• Below Clear browsing datato select Choose what to erase.
• Choose a time slot from the Time interval scrolling menu.
• Choose the types of data you want to erase. For example, you can delete browsing history and cookies, but keep passwords and form-filling data.
• To select clear now.

After clearing the cache, you should notice a noticeable improvement in your browser’s performance. Otherwise, we have a few other things you can try.

2. Reduce your list of extensions

There are two types of people in this world: those who don’t use any extensions and those who are open to any extension under the sun.

Depending on what you use, you may open the door to security issues like data tracking, targeted ads, and more. Extensions can also have a significant impact on your browser’s performance.

Our advice: delete extensions that you don’t use often. Try your browser with a clean slate and gradually add your must-haves one by one.

Working methodically in this way could reveal problematic extensions. You may be able to replace them with something lighter, safer and less strenuous.

3. Keep as few tabs open as possible

If you know, you know. A Wikipedia survey and suddenly the rabbit hole engulfs your entire session. Forty tabs later, and even your email can’t take off.

This browser trick is pretty self-explanatory. We like to organize our browser tabs by need and purpose. Inboxes, things we read for work, and other things for fun. When everything is organized and minimized, it’s easy to see what you need and what you don’t need at any given time.

Avoiding shady websites can also help you save some browser bandwidth. Popular sites like Wikipedia are lightweight by design, but not all destinations will be equally savvy or safe.

4. Try reinstalling your browser

Some never think to try this, but it can work like a charm.

To uninstall and reinstall a browser on a PC:

• Hit it To start up button.
• To research Control Panel.
• To select Programs.
• Below Programs and Featuresto select Uninstall a program.
• Find and select the browser in question. You can either right click and Uninstall or just use the Uninstall button above.

Keep validating and clicking until you finish the job. Now you can reinstall a new version. Ideally, one just downloaded it from the official source.

To do the same on your Mac, many suggest simply dragging Safari or any other browser to your dock’s trash. Edge, Firefox, and Chrome users might be able to fix the problem by doing this.

For fundamental apps like Safari, however, this may not completely fix the problem (and going about it the wrong way could break iOS). In this case, updating the browser can be a good solution. Often you will find that your browser simply needs to be upgraded.

5. Scan for viruses and malware

A slow browser does not always come from natural causes. Sometimes this is the worst case scenario and a sign that your device has been infected with malware.

That’s why you should regularly scan your gadgets with trusted antivirus software. If it detects an infection, it will remove it and speed up your machine again. We recommend using our sponsor, AV total.

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No hesitation about it – we ask a lot of our technology. More often than not, our trusted devices can weather the storm. Sometimes, though, a little extra help never hurts. Hopefully, these best practices will make your browser fly again.

You might also like: Free and quick test to see how much private information your browser leaks