TabView

A Chrome extension that lets you see all your tabs as visual previews in a single grid -- monitor RAM usage, multi-select tabs, create groups, and merge windows.

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Features

• Visual tab previews -- Captures screenshots of all tabs in the background (no disruptive tab switching)
• Per-tab RAM usage -- See JS heap memory for each tab, captured alongside screenshots. High-memory tabs (100+ MB) are highlighted in orange.
• Multi-select -- Checkbox on each tab card for selecting multiple tabs at once
• Tab grouping -- Select tabs and group them with a name and color using Chrome's native tab groups
• Discard tabs -- Unload selected tabs from memory without closing them to free RAM
• Merge windows -- One-click button to combine all Chrome windows into one
• Close tabs -- Hit the X on any card or bulk-close selected tabs
• Drag & drop reorder -- Drag cards to rearrange your actual Chrome tab order
• Click to switch -- Click any preview or title to jump straight to that tab
• Live updates -- Grid stays in sync as you open, close, or move tabs
• Auto-capture -- Previews start capturing automatically when you open TabView

Install (Developer Mode)

TabView isn't on the Chrome Web Store -- install it manually in about 30 seconds:

1. Download this repo:

   • Click the green Code button above, then Download ZIP
   • Or clone it: git clone https://github.com/cfranci/TabView.git

2. Open Chrome's extension page:

   • Go to chrome://extensions in your address bar

3. Enable Developer Mode:

   • Toggle the Developer mode switch in the top-right corner

4. Load the extension:

   • Click Load unpacked
   • Select the TabView folder you downloaded/cloned

5. Pin it (optional but recommended):

   • Click the puzzle piece icon in Chrome's toolbar
   • Pin TabView so it's always one click away

Usage

Click the TabView icon in your toolbar. A new tab opens with a grid of all your tabs.

Basic controls

• Click a preview -- switches to that tab
• Click the X -- closes that tab
• Drag a card -- reorders the tab in Chrome
• "Refresh Previews" -- re-captures all screenshots

RAM monitoring

Each tab card displays its JS heap usage on the right side of the info bar. Total memory across all tabs shows in the header. Tabs using more than 100 MB get an orange badge to flag them as heavy. Memory is captured during the screenshot pass -- click "Refresh Previews" to update both.

Multi-select and bulk actions

Check the box on the top-left of any tab card to select it. A floating action bar appears at the bottom with three options:

• Group -- Creates a Chrome tab group from selected tabs. Enter a name and a random color is assigned.
• Discard -- Unloads selected tabs from memory without closing them. The tab stays in your tab bar but its content is freed from RAM. Chrome reloads it when you click on it.
• Close -- Closes all selected tabs.

Merge windows

Click Merge Windows in the header to pull every tab from all other Chrome windows into the current window.

Permissions

Permission	Purpose
tabs	Read tab titles, URLs, and favicons
activeTab	Access the current tab
debugger	Capture tab screenshots without switching tabs (Chrome DevTools Protocol)
tabGroups	Create and name tab groups

License

MIT