Chrome and Sandboxie are maxing out my CPU

Has anyone dealt with something like this before? How did you fix it?

I'm running Chrome 32.0 and Sandboxie 4.12 (32-bit). I noticed today that YouTube is just crawling, so I checked Task Manager and realized Chrome is sitting at a constant 50% CPU usage. I did a little digging—Opera works fine both with and without the sandbox, and Chrome works perfectly fine on its own without the sandbox. But the second I launch it inside the sandbox, everything goes haywire and the CPU spikes straight to 50%. I tested it on the Google homepage without loading any other sites, so it’s definitely an issue with the specific combo of Chrome and Sandbox.

Does anyone know how to fix this so I don't have to switch browsers? 🙂 Uninstalling Chrome didn't do a thing.

First off, kill everything running in the sandbox and wipe its contents clean.

Then, open Chrome normally—without using Sandboxie—and double-check that auto-updates are disabled and there aren't any conflicting add-ons or extensions causing chaos. If that doesn't work, just uninstall it and try the Chrome portable version instead; it's functionally identical.

There’s also the official Sandboxie forum where you can ask around; you'll likely get much better info there...

I've been using Sandboxie for ages, on both Windows XP and Windows 7. Never had a single issue.

I tried everything—wiping the sandbox, running CCleaner, you name it—but nothing worked. Nothing changed. Chrome works perfectly fine until I try to run it inside the sandbox; then my CPU usage jumps to 50% immediately, and while I'm just browsing, it spikes all the way to 100%. 🤷 Eventually, I just uninstalled it and switched over to Pale Moon, which seems to be running totally fine in the sandbox for now. Opera is working normally too, so it’s obvious Chrome is the one glitching out, not Sandboxie.

By the way, over the last ten days or so, it felt like Chrome was forcing updates every two or three days. It was getting on my nerves so much I was already thinking about ditching it. Honestly, they did me a favor. Everything used to work fine, but ever since their recent updates, the whole thing is a mess—reinstalling it doesn't even help.

I don't know if this is happening to anyone else, but lately, when I launch Chrome, Adblock doesn't load right away. I have to sit there waiting for god knows how many seconds before I can actually browse without ads popping up everywhere. Even after a clean reinstall, the same thing keeps happening.

You can just turn off auto-updates. If the current version is driving you crazy, why not just wipe it clean with Revo Uninstaller and roll back to an older one?

Have you even bothered testing it without any active extensions yet?

An adblocker can absolutely hammer your CPU if you've got too many lists running, which drags the whole browser down with it.

Honestly, Chrome works fine for me. I always stick to portable versions whenever I get the chance.