How to enable Chrome’s Site Isolation security feature

On a continuous effort to compete with Microsoft Edge, Google is rolling out Chrome version 63 with a new security feature called Site Isolation to add an extra layer of security to protect users from malware, ransomware, and other malicious code.

Site Isolation is a feature that allows to run each website inside of its own separate process, isolated from other websites, adding a stronger layer of security very similar to Windows Defender Application Guard available on Windows 10 version 1709.

Chrome’s Site Isolation is a feature aimed for enterprises, but unlike the equivalent feature found in Microsoft Edge, anyone can enable the new security layer in Google Chrome.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to enable Site Isolation in Chrome to improve your device security protection against malware, ransomware, and helps to mitigate the Meltdown and Spectre processor security vulnerabilities.

• How to enable Chrome isolation using flags
• How to enable Chrome isolation using command line

How to enable Chrome isolation using flags

The isolation feature is disabled by default on Chrome, but you can use the following steps to enable it.

1. Open Chrome.

2. Type chrome://flags in the address bar and press Enter.

3. Scroll down and find Strict site isolation.

4. Click the Enable button to turn on the feature.

   

5. Restart Chrome to apply the settings.

Once you have completed the steps, every page you open using Google Chrome will run in its own sandboxed container.

How to enable Chrome isolation using command line

1. Right-click the Chrome icon, and select Properties.

2. Click the Shortcut tab.

3. In the “Target” field, append the following switch at the end of the line with one space, and outside of the quotation marks.

   --site-per-process

   

4. Click Apply.

5. Click OK.

After completing the steps, every time you launch Chrome, it’ll open in isolation mode.

The only caveat with this feature is that it causes the browser to use more memory, anywhere from 10 to 20 percent more, and we already know that Chrome uses more memory than it should.

It should be noted that while this guide focuses on enabling Chrome’s isolation feature on Windows 10, you can also use these instructions to turn on the feature on macOS or Linux.