Browser history, by window

Question

I use Chrome --but can switch to another browser if the feature I am about to describe is available.

Browsing history, AFAIK in Chrome is sorted exclusively chronologically. Very often however, I will be working on a particular task on my laptop and have multiple (read: a lot) of tabs open in a single Chrome window for that task. Before finishing that task, I may need to work on something else --so I will open another window and minimize the other one, and start researching an entirely different issue. Over the course of a day, I may end up with 10-15 windows with many tabs each. This raises two issues: (a) memory usage and (b) quickly switching between the most relevant two or three windows. I solve these two problems like any regular guy probably would --closing windows.

I want to be able to reopen specific windows that I have closed, such that the tabs that were open in that window at the time the window was closed will reopen. Ideally, closed windows will be sorted by the time they were closed and identified by the tabs that were open (even more ideally, I would be able to name these windows (contemporaneously or in the history menu)).

Now that I describe this, what I am asking is: does any browser offer the ability to "save and close" windows? (This is distinct from an option to auto-restore tabs upon reopening the browser)

Thank you.

Answer 1

In Firefox, within the main window it's possible to have two groups: one group of sites as regular tabs, and another as Pinned tabs. The default Firefox setting Don't load tabs until selected in Firefox Tools (Alt + T) > Options > Tabs ensures the regular tabs aren't loaded after a restart/fresh start until selected and thus doesn't use any memory/resource. This setting can be extended to the pinned tabs by setting browser.sessionstore.restore_pinned_tabs_on_demand to true in about:config.

A further option is to use as many Tab Groups as required. The Don't load tabs until selected applies here.

A completely different approach would be to use multiple profiles corresponding to the different groups of sites, and optionally create the corresponding shortcuts. An example of a desktop shortcut's Target for a profile named social would be "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p social -no-remote or, alternatively change the Target of the main Firefox shortcut on the desktop/Start menu to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p -no-remote to always open the Profile Manager and choose/create profiles. Even otherwise it's also possible to start the Profile Manager and multiple profiles via the command line/Run box: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -p -no-remote.

about:config Entries, Config Descriptions extension, Command Line options, Multiple Firefox Profiles