GPU Toggle

A Chrome extension that lets you enable or disable hardware acceleration with one click, without digging through chrome://settings/system every time.

The problem

Chrome's hardware acceleration toggle is buried four clicks deep in Settings and requires a full browser relaunch to take effect. Users who frequently need to flip it — those with rendering artifacts on certain sites, mixed-DPI setups, older integrated GPUs, or developers testing rendering paths — have no better option today.

How it works

Chrome extensions can't modify the hardware acceleration setting directly. GPU Toggle pairs a minimal Chrome extension with a small native helper binary that reads and writes Chrome's Local State file (where Chrome stores the setting) and triggers a relaunch.

Chrome Extension (popup UI)
        │  Native Messaging (stdin/stdout JSON)
        ▼
  GPU Toggle Helper (Go binary)
        │
        ▼
  Chrome Local State file

Current status

Phase 0 — proof of concept, Windows only.

The core round-trip works: toggle in the popup → helper writes Local State → Chrome relaunches with the new setting applied.

Project structure

extension/          Chrome extension (Manifest V3)
helper/             Native messaging host (Go)
com.gputoggle.helper.json   Native messaging manifest template
install.ps1         Build + registration script (Windows)

Setup (Windows)

Prerequisites: Go 1.21+, Chrome

1. Clone the repo.

2. Load the extension in Chrome:

   • Go to chrome://extensions
   • Enable Developer mode
   • Click Load unpacked → select the extension/ folder
   • Copy the 32-character Extension ID

3. Run the install script in PowerShell:

   .\install.ps1

   Paste the Extension ID when prompted. The script builds helper.exe, writes the native messaging manifest, and registers it in the Windows registry.

4. Click the GPU Toggle icon in Chrome's toolbar.