In a recent official blog post, Microsoft went on to explain the “multi-process architecture” of Microsoft Edge. The company shared this valuable information about modern web browsers to explain how these applications use memory on users’ devices.
Multiple Processes, More Memory Usage
Now, Microsoft says that most of today’s popular web browsers use the multi-process architecture, which means the whole browser is fragmented into different processes.
According to the official post, below are the different processes of a modern browser:
So, each of the processes uses some part of your PC’s memory and create a background process of their own. That is why we see so many background processes running in our task manager window.
Benefits of Multi-Process Architecture
Now, although this architecture uses more memory for the user, it has various benefits as well. Microsoft notes that, like any other modern browser, Microsoft uses the multi-process architecture “for better security, reliability, and resource accountability into how the browser is using resources”. Moreover, as each component of the browser is segmented and has its own process, malware cannot take over the whole browser at once. “If malware takes advantage of a security weakness in one of the renderer processes, it is difficult for it to escape that process and affect another process.”, adds the post. So, even though web browsers use a huge chunk of our devices’ memory, it also helps the browsers keep us safe from malicious programs on the internet.
