Google is promising to fix a bug in Chrome for Windows that has been draining laptop batteries for years. The problem was first reported in 2010, but a recent investigation by Forbes has bumped the issue to the top of Google’s Chrome bug report list. Chrome’s battery drain problem affects Windows users as Google sets a parameter for processor-intensive tasks much lower than Microsoft recommends. The result means laptop processors are waking up far more often than they should when Chrome is open on Windows and a webpage is idle. Internet Explorer and Firefox don't exhibit the same battery drain problem.

Google confirmed the issue to PC World, and an engineer has been assigned internally to address the problem. The promise of a fix follows a recent Chrome 37 beta update that improves font rendering in Windows. Chrome 37 beta now supports Microsoft’s DirectWrite font rendering technology, dramatically improving the way fonts are displayed in the browser with smooth animations. While Windows Phone might not be getting much love from Google, these two fixes show that the search giant is at least dedicated to improving Chrome on the desktop version of Windows.