We might have already shared ways to speed up Mac OS X, but as your OS gets updated every now and then, you should also be ready with new and better ways to speed up your operating system.
Sometimes going beyond the conventional ways helps. And in case of speeding up the operating system, you have to look for smarter and better ways. In my mission to speed up my MacBook Pro, I have read a lots of blogs, tried a number of ways, and have written this post to help you.
I have been doing the basic things (the known tricks) to keep my MacBook in condition, but with time I have realized that those tricks were not doing much of magic now. And in pursuit of better ways, I have come across a number of ways that I never knew. Below are some of the top ways to keep the pace alive on your Mac machine.
11 Best Free Ways To Speed Up Mac OS X
Defragment The Disk
If your Mac runs on SSD then there is not need to defragment your disk. If not, then you should get your hard disk defragmented once provided its getting slower. It won’t guarantee any improvement in the performance, but since it does not have any adverse affect, you can go for it. You can use the Disk Utility available in Utilities under Applications to get this job done.
Fix Disk Errors
It has been suggested by number of Mac doctors that sometimes fixing permissions and verifying disk also fixes the slowness. You can get this done by using Disk Utility. Or you can go for any third party applications, out of them, Onyx is a must try one.
Kiss Goodbye To Extras
I understand that Mac is packed with number of features but how many of those features are really used by you? It does not really make any sense in making those features eat up your machine’s resources when you know that you would never use them.
If you are not interested in having the visual effects that Mac has while minimizing or maximizing windows, then navigate to System Preferences > Dock and uncheck all the effects that you don’t wish to you. This would have some evident affect on the Mac’s speed.
Get Rid Of All The Unused Languages
Monolingual is an amazing app which lets you remove the chosen languages from your Mac. I removed all the languages except English, and trust me, I successfully saved a good amount of storage.
Get Rid Of Unused Applications
Spend few minutes on your applications page, make a note of all the applications that you do not use and go ahead and get rid of them. While working on your computer, launch Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor) and find of the apps which are consuming maximum CPU. If you find a culprit, try to replace those apps with lighter alternatives.
Goodbye Dashboard
Lets be honest, how many of us use Dashboard? I do not use it and considering what it has got to offer, I am not sure if you really need it. If you do not, then say goodbye to it as it would be consuming your Mac’s resources for no reason. Just get rid of it. Hit the below two commands on your command prompt to do it:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
killall Dock
Quit Applications, Dont Just Minimize Them
Once you are done working on any application, dont just minimize it or close it, QUIT IT properly. All you need to do is hit Command + Q and its done. Less are the active applications on your machine, better would be its response.
Quick Restart Of Mac
As you keep installing new apps, you would notice that your Main Menu bar would be cluttered with icons. And more are the items there, greater would be time taken by Mac to start. These items are actually called Login Items, and I am pretty sure that out of all those items, only few make sense to be there.
So, navigate to System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items and uncheck all the items that you do not need after every login.
Stay Updated
When I say, Stay Updated, it implies that you need to check for OS updates frequently and get them loaded accordingly. It does not mean that you have to run on latest OS, but it surely means that you need to have all the updates (related to the OS version you are running on) loaded on your Mac machine.
Understand Storage Usage And Free Space
You know that you hard disk is filled to its neck but you are not sure where to start with (for the deletion of data). Disk Inventory is a free app which would scan your hard disk and give you the exact picture of your storage usage. Once its there on your screen, you can easily take your steps to delete the data, whether its photos, music, movies or documents. And its always recommended to have minimum media files.
Last Resort – Reformat
Yes, the inevitable last resort would be to reformat your Mac. If all of the above methods fail to do the job, then get your data backed up and reformat the machine.