12/23/2023 0 Comments Disk inventory x reopening itself![]() ![]() But before you go to more ram, run an intensive process and open the Activity Monitor. However adding RAM and switching to a faster hard drive (A solid state hard drive) will drastically increase your computer's abilities. This post is about making the most of what you have. While these will marginally improve performance when your computer is operating at maximum capacity, they won't increase your overall computing capacity. Still, shutting down clears the RAM, so it's not a bad idea to restart your computer at least once a month or more if it's running sluggishly. Some say sleeping is easier on your hard disc then shutting down, but i'm not sure if that's true. I've read a couple forums and the jury seems to be out about which is actually better for your computer: Putting to sleep or shutting down. If you're like me, you normally don't shut down your computer very often. Need help figuring out what files to get rid of? Try Disc Inventory X, a free ultilitiy to help you visualize what's taking space on your hard drive. Deleting unused files and moving rarely used files to external drives is a great way to improve your system performance. If your system drive is full, it'll make your computer run noticeably slower. ![]() In google chrome, each tab occurs as a separate process in the Activity Monitor. Some applications (like google chrome) break their processes into multiple parts. To make informed decisions about what programs are using lots vs little memory, open up the Activity monitor, and sort applications by "Real Memory." Applications showing up using lots of real memory are worth closing, but this can be mis-leading. Each uses memory, so cleaning up and closing down unused tabs and quitting unused applications will free up lots of memory! I'm bad about leaving tabs open! This is a no-brainer, but I'm the worst about leaving LOTS of windows open on my mac. (Don't worry, the Dock will re-launch itself in a few seconds) Then kill the currently running dashboard using killall Dock Want to get rid of the dashboard all together? Open the terminal and run this command: defaults write mcx-disabled -boolean YES Getting rid of dashboard widgets can free up a lot of system resources, and let's face it: You can usually find snow reports, current news, and dictionaries from an app on your phone or by visiting a website. Some of these you might want to launch when you boot up your computer, but others, you might choose to launch on an as-needed basis.Äashboard widgets are fun, yes. The users menu under System Preferences has a tab containing "login items", all of these will open on startup and use memory while your computer is operating. ![]() This used to be a lot fuller, but I cleaned it up to boos performanceÄ¥) See what applicaitons are launching on startup Here also: using the "Scale effect" rather than the "Genie effect" is apparently slightly less intensive. You can also turn off the animation when you open a new application (vs a new window) by right clicking the dock and un-checking the appropriate box. To skip this animation, and have windows open instantly, open the terminal and use the command: defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAutomaticWindowAnimationsEnabled -bool NO When opening a new windows, OSX Lion animates the new window opening. If your desktop is full of screen shots and images, like mine, this can slow down your system. On startup each icon on your desktop has be loaded. If it's been a while, run the scripts manually using sudo periodic daily weekly monthly You can see when the scripts last ran by running the following command in the terminal: ls -al /var/log/*.out However, if you're computer is off or sleeping during the scheduled maintenance time (usually 3-5 AM), these scripts will get missed. OSX is built on UNIX which has a built in daily, weekly and monthly maintenance scripts. Fixing this on a regular basis should boost performance. I was shocked by the amount of errors I had here. If you open up the Disc Utility (in the Utilities folder under applications) there are options to verify permissions and verify disc. Here are 10 ways to boost your system performance! In the 3 years i've owned my laptop, i never have done the permissions/disc verification! These are especially useful if Matlab is running slow! Also, apparently saving 5% of CPU power can increase battery life by 20-30 mins. Most of these performance improvements are super minor, but when my system is pegged out with a hefty image processing job or particle tracking model: every little bit helps.
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