“Every now and then, my Macs begin to feel a little sluggish. There are many potential reasons why: I tend to run 8-10 applications all the time – and sometimes push 15 or more. This alone will bog down any Mac,” Ed Eubanks Jr. writes for Low End Mac.
Eubanks writes, “At other times, I realize that it’s been weeks since I restarted the computer, and a simple restart will solve a lot of these woes. When those don’t speed things up, I’ve found a number of things I can do to encourage my Macs back to their youthful snappiness. Here are a few tips I’ve found for restoring my Macs to full speed without spending a penny.”
1. Clean out Startup Items
2. Turn off Universal Access, Bluetooth, Speech Recognition, and Internet Sharing if You Don’t Use Them
3. Clean Out ‘Other’ System Preferences
4. Check Out What ‘Build’ Your Software Is
5. Clean Out Unnecessary Code
6. Get Rid of Languages and Translations You Won’t Use
7. Cool Off
8. Evaluate Your Widgets
9. Keep an Eye on Activity Monitor
10. Clean Off Your Hard Driv
11. Run OnyX
Full article, with explanations of each point, here.
MacDailyNews Note: OnyX is a multifunction utility (maintenance, optimization, and personalization). It allows you to run misc tasks of system maintenance, to configure certain hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock, Dashboard, Exposé, Safari, Login window and many Apple’s applications, to delete cache, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome, to see the detailed info of your configuration, to preview the different logs and CrashReporter reports, to check the Preferences files and more. We use OnyX (with the “Xrings 02” icon, FYI). More info and download link (free) here.
How about DiskWarrior ?
“Step 11 . . . There IS no Step 11!”
@ “Macs Suck”: Wow- a PC drone who can’t even read! There are already 11 steps in the article, genius.
Stick to your Dell box.
12. Bran Flakes
Yah … ever since I upgraded to Panther, I have been sluggish as hell
eMac; 1GHz, 640 RAM
That is the most worthless bit of advice I have ever seen. Must have been written by a mindless ‘switcher’.
I like Macs. I really do. I have three old ones in my house.
They make great doorstops.
‘I like Macs. I really do. I have three old ones in my house.
They make great doorstops.’
They also make Windows work better…
“That is the most worthless bit of advice I have ever seen. Must have been written by a mindless ‘switcher’.”
I am a recent “mindless switcher” – bought my first iMac about a month ago. Question: is the advice given in this article really worthless? Even the advice given in this article is nothing compared to the maintenance my dell required.
@Mac sucks
If you have three Macs in your house then by your logic you REALLY suck.
You are not a troll, you are a STUPID troll.
mikeh
No, for the most part its good advice. basically it reads as dont be using stuff you dont need and optimize your system.
Ignore the mindless troll drivel.
“Clean out unnecessary code”
What does he mean by this? Delete Microsucks Office?
The only really major issue I’ve ever had was with a widget that slowed my POwerbook to an absolute crawl.
12. don’t run Microsoft Word
that thing turns my Powerbook into quicksand. Where the hell is the new iWork? I’m ready to drop Word
Tiger Cache Cleaner and Disk Warrior. All I need.
I am going through Zune Tang withdrawl. I need my fix.
With apologizes to Sting and the Police:
I need my, I need my, I need my Zune Tang now!
-mikeh
I don’t think this advice sucks necessarily. Stopping unnecessary programs from running frees memory and resources, deleting unused language files frees hard disk space, etc. That is all true and basic common sense of course, but I doubt if it will really change the performance of most Macs unless they are running short of memory or hard disk space.
Considering you have a new Mac I doubt you’re going to see a noticable performance gain from these steps, but if it’s something you are interested in trying it certainly won’t cause you any problems.
Oh, and please disregard the snide comment from “amazing crap” about Switchers. I think most Mac users welcome Switchers wholeheartedly and are more than happy to share expertise and answer questions as you change gears from Windows to the Mac world. Welcome aboard.
PC’s make better door stops, there heavier and boxier and are just as ugly as a door stop.
Oh I forgot, PC’s don’t work as computers because they keep crashing or getting infected with viruses and spyware which is another reason to use them as a door stop. Macs don’t get viruses, spyware, and have yet been compromised on a network. I’ll stick with my Mac any day.
@john- Don’t be a moron (I know it must be hard for you). It’s “they’re” heavier, dingus, not “there” heavier. Go back to rememdial reading and writing class.
Oh, pummeling “john” was so much fun I almost forgot: @Buster- Is breathing difficult for you? Seems like it. Don’t get too worked up, there, Mac-simp.
My Mac doorstops were “rescued” from smart, intelligent Windows users who ditched them. I saved them from a landfill life.
Where’s my award?
“Oh, and please disregard the snide comment from ‘amazing crap’ about Switchers. I think most Mac users welcome Switchers wholeheartedly and are more than happy to share expertise and answer questions as you change gears from Windows to the Mac world.”
Thanks. I have definitely found this to be true. Having been a Windows user all my life, I would think that I was quite “mindless” before, not now.
After one hour on my new iMac, I knew I had made the right choice (bought it online after seeing those new TV ads and visiting my local Apple Store). And trust me, I have told everyone I know about my experiences.
I guess the point of sharing that is just to show that there truly IS a significantly large group of people out there (including my friends, family, etc.) that are VERY open to change.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback InTheShelter and Moo.
@Mac Sucks
Breathing is only difficult when you are around…must be your lack of deoderant. Oh btw, I just realized why you don’t have any hemorroids…because you are the perfect A$$hole.
Go troll somewhere else twit….its got to be past your bedtime now and you don’t want mommy to be upset with you.
@Enuz Gnat…sheesh….life must be pretty darn slow when you pine so much for ZT.
Mikeh
Welcome to the family
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
We like to share….
You want to optimize your Mac’s performance? Get Vista. It ROCKS!
What do you expect from a 30-year old Unix distro? You Mac nerds just don’t get it. Macs are s l o o o o w. Always have been, always will. You want performance and games? Get Windows. Dorks.
The Wow is Now.
I love Onyx and recommend it to everyone! My Spotlight was fscked up and refused to search etc and a few more troubles came in around the same focus. Only Onyx was the saviour. There is an option there to reset Spotlight’s index.
“Every now and then, my Macs begin to feel a little sluggish. There are many potential reasons why: I tend to run 8-10 applications all the time – and sometimes push 15 or more. This alone will bog down any Mac,” Ed Eubanks Jr. writes for Low End Mac.
That alone would kill any XP or Vista system.
OnyX is a great utility, three step process
1. Disk Utility – Repair permissions
2. Run OnyX – clean out caches and full optimization – under automation tab
3. Reboot
> Get Vista. It ROCKS!
Watch out, you just might get what you asked for. Ouch! Sorry.
wow i hope the average age of the commenters is about 12, this is pathetic!
I tried installing OnyX but it’s not allowing me to run the app its asking me to change my prefs for a admin account. I am using a admin account, this app sucks especially if it can’t recognize that I am the admin user I will try Disk Warrior see if this works better.
Trolls Trolls Trolls how do you have the time to troll Mac forums and WHY would you???
A real list:
1) If your HD is beyond 90% full, you need a bigger HD. There will be too much paging activity as the HD searches for free blocks, and the swapfiles will start to kill performance.
2) if on a portable (Powerbook, MacBook or MacBook Pro) look into upgrading your HD to a 7200 rpm drive with low latency. You will notice the speed improvement instantaneously. (Most laptops ship with a 5400 or slower HD)
3) Clean out the widget cache files. This will speed up widgets, but you need to keep doing this. Located at
~/Library/Caches/DashboardClient
4) Turn off all unnecessary services. Launch the Directory Access application found in /Applications/Utilities. For the standard home user, all of those services can be turned off. If you use any of the local sharing search stuff, then leave bonjour on.
5) Disable all network protocols & devices except for the ones that you use. Go to the Network preference pane in the System Preferences and select Network Port Configurations in the Show pull down menu.
First, place in order the port configs from top to bottom in the order that you primarily use them (you can do this by dragging them higher on the list.)
Second, turn off the ones that you don’t use.
-Bluetooth: If you don’t file share over Bluetooth then turn it off. Note this is not the same as using a blue tooth mouse or keyboard, just file sharing (ie, transfering information to/from a PIM or bluetooth phone). You can turn off Bluetooth, despite the fact that you use a blue tooth device, and it’ll still work.
-Built-in Firewire: Turn off firewire if you dont use firewire over ethernet. This is a pretty cool, but specialized protocol. Most peeps don’t use it. You would KNOW if you were using it. Your firewire enabled Mac will work just fine with all firewire devices with this turned off. You just wont be able to network over a firewire cable. (Heck even target disc mode works with this disabled, as it should)
-Internal Modem: If listed, and you aren’t using it for fax, or for dialup, turn off the internal modem (if you have one)
-Airport: This one speaks for itself. If you use it leave it on, else turn it off.
-Ethernet: Again, this one is only for wired LAN/WANs if you use wireless exclusively, turn it off.
6) Turn off Internet Sharing, in the Sharing preference pane. If you aren’t using it. This is not the same as multiple Mac’s sharing a high speed connection. It is one Mac piggy backing an internet connection off another Mac. It is a pretty cool feature, (and can be done over Airport, Ethernet or Firewire) but unless you are using it, you don’t need it on.
7) Turn off all sharing items, except the ones you actually use and need.
8) if you really want to get radical, disable spotlight and the dashboard altogether.
There are more, I will think of some.
zac
I love the smell of Zune Tang in the morning…
it smells of Vista-ry!
mikeh; welcome and congrats on making the move. I’m going to guess that you’re new to this site as well, or maybe you were reading here before making the move, whatever the case, my suggestion is that you read the articles posted, if they seem interesting, follow through the link and read the entire article, and let your intuition be your guide, not the commentators here on MDN. As a Mac user for over 16-years, I always take whatever tips or suggestions come my way, especially if I am spending more of my time trying to be productive rather than bashing other OSs’ (even though I have taken my fair share of swipes here and there). The real downside to MDN is the unmoderated boards, but as we all know, a hit is a hit is a hot!. Take what is of value, always follow the link to the full article, and if you must read the comments, look for input that is well thought out and constructive, such as maczak providedyou might have to look hard at times. Ｂest of luck.
Mikah,
Based on some of your remarks, you’re gonna fit in quite well, particularly in this forum. It’s just about the only one I visit that has more than its share of asshole Doze trollers.
I got back 1.5 gigs on my PPC Mac mini running monligual! Another 134m deleting the not used architecture stuff.
I use YASU to do the ther routine stuff.
@Zune Tang:
> You want performance and games? Get Windows. Dorks.
Hmmm. Funny, every major release of Mac OS X has been significantly faster whereas with Vista Aero, one takes a substantial performance hit with respect to XP.
Mike H… welcome to the Mac world. It will take a bit of an adjustment, but you’re really gonna enjoy the ramifications of this decision.
@Enuz Gnat
>Mar 13, 07 – 04:02 pm
I am going through Zune Tang withdrawl. I need my fix.
With apologizes to Sting and the Police:
I need my, I need my, I need my Zune Tang now!<
The would be apologize to Mark Knopfler, Dire Straits, and Sting…….
Just ran Monolingual. The program that the article recomended. Wow, I recaptured 2 gig’s of space on my macbook just by removin languages and non-intel builds. Nice!
Same here, Jim. Took about an hour.
Yep…did the same here. This is why I like MDN….mucho funny posts and some useful tidbits from time to time.
yeah, like a bar….Norm!
lol… TONE!
don’t forget removing print drivers for HD space