Extension causes performance issue with Edge

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1

For a few months now, Edge has been getting slower just having the extension enabled. Recently, it has gotten worse.

Currently, when I move the browser window (fresh instance) in a circle, it’s smooth when the extension is disabled but immediately stuttering when enabled.
This has been particularly noticeable with streaming content (twitch) where the stuttering from moving the window is worse. Even without moving the window, it’s slow to the point I sometimes see a video error and I need to refresh the tab. Even when opening the browser settings menu with streaming content running, I can see the context menu open with some stuttering. The new thing (maybe in the last month?) that started happening, is that it freezes the whole Edge instance for 20+ seconds (all edge windows). I can open the task manager, but it won’t close when I force it to and have to wait until the freeze is over.

My bandaid solution is using an extension that quickly toggles the extension for when I need it. That is, everything else with the browser performs as expected with the extension disabled.

I think other people would have encountered this issue but I couldn’t find any on the topic. If it’s the case with my PC, I am not sure what would cause this issue.

Things I’ve tried:

  • Chrome/Firefox both work without issues (both were new installs)
  • Using a new Edge User Data folder (I think this is similar to factory resetting Edge?) with only the Bitwarden extension installed still had the same issue. This is without logging into both my Bitwarden and Edge account. So I believe it’s isolated to the extension alone.
  • Enable/Disable HW acceleration
  • Since having the issue, I’ve reinstalled a fresh OS (Windows 11) once and the issue persisted. I’ve not tried a different system entirely.
  • I’ve monitored Edge with the Windows task manager, and the extension itself in the browser’s task manager (usually between 55-65K Memory, currently 65K and observing the stuttering), and don’t see anything alarming

Specs
12700k (Motherboard bios up to date)
64GB
4080S (566.03)
Windows 11 (2024-10 Cumulative Update KB5044380)
Edge (Version 130.0.2849.52 (Official build) (64-bit))

2

Same thing. I tried to profile js performance, but I don’t know what to profile, looking at current tab or plugin background.html does not seem to be showing anything that would cause this.

The weird thing is that it seems to be random which currently opened browser window will stutter the worst, I have 3 windows open and I try to move each of one and one of them will stutter really bad, then it might stop for that window but will stutter other window. Like whatever is causing it is switching threads and if it is on the same thread as browser window instance it causes stutters and freezes.

As now I was trying to see changes in the built in browser task manager, but for this instance not a single window is stuttering, so repro may vary, it will be fun to figure out for sure.

AMD Ryzen 5800X
32GB of RAM
Edge 130.0.2849.56
3070ti (560.94)
Windows 10 22H2 (Version 10.0.19045 Build 19045)
EDIT: I’m self-hosted, don’t know if it matters

3

I noticed that issue appears when twitch chat is more active, and it disappears when I remove chat using dev tools (just remove chat parent element).

Edit: But it does not happen on kick chat, so it must be something twitch chat does that collides with bitwarden, maybe there is some kind of script attached to check new html elements on twitch page and every new message causes it to run, and it is active on twitch player page because of some false positive that makes bitwarden attach the script that looks for forms to fill out. I’m just guessing.

4

Given that Edge is based off of Chromium, it could well be that these performance issues are related to this posting from a Bitwarden employee:

5

Might not be the same issue then because I migrated to chrome where this issue does not appear for me.