'The Great Suspender' extension is now flagged as malware, but Microsoft Edge has a built-in replacement

Source: Daniel Rubino/Windows Central

Updated Feb 4, 2022: Google Chrome now also flags The Keen Suspender for malware and the extension has been removed from the Chrome Web Shop.

What you need to know

Microsoft Edge at present warns that "The Great Suspender" extension contains malware.
The Peachy Suspender was recently sold to a new owner.
Microsoft Border has a similar feature that can be enabled through edge://flags.

I've used "The Groovy Suspender" extension on Microsoft Edge for quite some time. The extension puts tabs to sleep later a specified amount of fourth dimension to free up RAM and system resource. Simply this morning, when communicable up on the news from over the weekend, I saw a strange warning sign. At present, Microsoft Edge suspends The Great Suspender and warns that the extension contains malware.

The Groovy Suspender has been a trusty companion to my browsing for some fourth dimension and never caused any issues, so I was dislocated by the warning. It turns out that the extension was sold to an unnamed third political party earlier this year and has since been defendant of containing malware.

Microsoft'due south warning about The Not bad Suspender. Source: Windows Primal

The previous possessor of The Great Suspender announced the auction on June 19, 2022. The comments on that thread accuse the extension of containing malware and new code that tracks people'southward activeness. There are also extensive Reddit posts breaking down similar accusations.

I'thou not a coding expert, so I tin can't verify any of these claims. What is known is that Microsoft Edge states that the extension contains malware and suspends it. Luckily for those that relish the functionality but are uncomfortable with the recent accusations surrounding The Smashing Suspender, Microsoft Edge has a born feature that's very similar.

If y'all navigate to "edge://flags" y'all tin enable the experimental "Sleeping Tabs" feature on Microsoft Edge. The feature rolled out to Microsoft Border Canary in September but is now bachelor on the generally released version of the browser as "experimental". You must enable the characteristic through edge://flags, just you lot don't have to be an Insider or download a different version of Edge to use Sleeping Tabs.

Here'due south how to enable Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge:

Open up Microsoft Edge.
Go to edge://flags through the address bar.
Search "Sleeping" through the search bar.
Select Enable next to "Enable Sleeping Tabs." You exercise not need to enable "Firsthand timeout" if you do non prefer that selection.