Speed Up Internet Explorer 9 By Disabling Add-Ons

by Paul Ciano on July 30, 2012

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 supports add-ons, i.e., extensions that enhance the built-in functionality of a program by offering additional features, and, just like any other browser, installing too many of these enhancements can cause a performance decrement. If you’ve found that your IE9 experience is starting to suffer because of your add-on obsession, you might want to know how to disable them.

Disabling some or all of IE9′s add-ons is a relatively easy process. To start, activate the Command bar (if not already accessible). To do this, right-click on a empty area of your tab bar and select Command bar from the menu.

Then, select the Tools button on the Command bar and choose Toolbars | Disable add-ons from the menu.

Now, the Choose Add-ons dialog box will display and show you how long each add-on takes to load as Internet Explorer starts. To deactivate a specific add-on, select Disable to the right of the extension name. To disable all add-ons, select Disable All at the bottom of the dialog box.

Additional options are available. To have IE tell you when a delay caused by an add-on exceeds a certain number of seconds, select a value from the popup menu and hit Done to close the dialog box.

If you need to re-enable a disabled add-on, go to the Command bar and select Tools | Toolbars | Manage add-ons.

Afterwards, the Manage Add-ons box will display with different types of add-ons shown on the left. Select a type to show all the add-ons of that type that are installed. To re-enable a deactivated add-on, select one from the list and click Enable.