What is Browser / Electron renderer helper?
By Junaid, maker of Taskglass · Last reviewed
Runs web pages or an app's interface for a Chromium browser or an Electron app.
Apps built on Chromium (Chrome, Edge, Brave) or Electron (Slack, Discord, VS Code, Notion and many more) split their work into helper processes. 'Renderer' helpers run web pages or the app's own interface, usually one per site, tab, window or extension. The start of the name tells you which app it belongs to. Many of them at once is normal.
- Category
- Third-party
- Safe to quit:
- With care
Applies to processes whose name ends with "Helper (Renderer)".
Why is Browser / Electron renderer helper using so much CPU or memory?
- A heavy web page or app view: video, animation, large documents
- Many tabs, windows or views open
- Extensions or plug-ins running scripts
- A page or view stuck in a loop
What to do
- 1Look at the start of the name to see which app it belongs to
- 2Use that app's own task manager if it has one (Chrome/Edge/Brave: Window or More tools > Task Manager)
- 3Close the tab, window or view that's busy
- 4Quit and reopen the app
Safe to quit? With care.
Quitting one closes or crashes the tab or window it was running; the rest of the app keeps going.
Part of the Taskglass Process Library