I LIKE CHROME because it's a fast, safe browser. But I've discovered Flash can slow down and crash Chrome so I've a work-around.
Unlike Firefox and other browsers, Chrome handles Flash content via an internal Flash installation. That's normally ok because Chrome updates Flash whenever it's updated.
However, in my experience, Chrome can get confused when both its internal Flash player and my Windows 7 Flash player both run in attempts to play content. This occurs on my blog's web pages where embed codes help run audio files. It happens with Flick where Flash is the uploader I prefer to use. It happens a lot when visiting mainstream news sites where I play video news clips.
Unless I control things, Chrome will get confused and attempt to utilize both my OS installation of Flash and the internal Chrome installation of Flash. This causes browser lag, temporary lockup, and then a browser-wide crash of all active Flash instances. On some days, I will get five Chrome tabs locking up with "The following plug-in has crashed: Shockwave Flash” so I've done a few things.
When Chrome starts slowing down, I type about:plugins in the address bar. That displays a listing of of all the plug-ins (not Extensions) installed in Chrome. In many cases, the plugins listing shows two entries for Flash, and that suggests the browser has to deconflict resource calls for each instance of Flash. I click "disable" on one of the entries.
When I disable Flash inside Chrome and let Flash work its business through Windows 7, I no longer get automatic updates with each Chrome upgrade. That's normally not a problem for me because I run a lot of Adobe programs and they're always checking for updates. If you don't use Adobe for anything and you turn off Chrome's ability to check for Flash updates, you might consider turning on the update check in your local installation of Adobe Flash.
I've never had to play around with turning off Window's Flash installation because of how frequently it checks Flash central.
I've visited Flash sites like Last.fm on my Windows XP laptop while in Incognito Mode and that shows whether Flash or an Extension may be slowing down the browser. The Incognito Mode shuts down all Extensions.
If you're troubled by Flash crashing and you've done all these things already, you might solve the problem by removing and reinstalling Chrome. If you're pushed that far, I recommend you uninstall, shut down and reinstall after a fresh start session.
Jason Fitzpatrick -- "How to fix Shockwave Flash Crashes in Google Chrome", January 17, 2012.
