HomeMac OS X

How to Speed Up a Mac

This wikiHow shows you several ways to speed up your Mac. A slow Mac can be caused by several issues, but turning off visual effects, closing resource-heavy programs, updating your OS, and managing your startup programs are a few ways to...
Method 1 of 4:

Managing your Startup Programs

  1. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 1How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 1
    Click on the
    How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 2How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 2
    apple in the top left corner of the screen.
  2. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 3How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 3
    Click on System Preferences.
    1. You can also find
      How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 4How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 4
      System Preferences in your dock.
  3. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 5How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 5
    Click on Users & Groups. The icon has a silhouette of two people.
  4. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 6How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 6
    Select your name from the Current User list.
  5. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 7How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 7
    Click on the Login Items tab. You will get a list of programs that open automatically when you log in.
  6. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 8How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 8
    Uncheck any programs that you don't need when your Mac starts up. Fewer programs at startup will help your Mac launch faster and will not hog up your computer's resources in the background.
Method 2 of 4:

Updating your OS

  1. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 9How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 9
    Click on the
    How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 10How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 10
    apple at the top left. This will open an overview window.
  2. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 11How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 11
    Click on Software Update to check for updates. If your mac is up to date then it will tell you.
  3. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 12How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 12
    Download any updates and restart your mac. Updating your macOS will sometimes help fix bugs or clean up files that may have been slowing your computer down in previous OS versions.
Method 3 of 4:

Turning off Visual Effects

  1. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 13How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 13
    Go to
    How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 14How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 14
    System Preferences. It'll be located on your dock or you can search for it using Finder.
  2. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 15How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 15
    Select Dock from the menu.
  3. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 16How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 16
    Uncheck the box next to
    How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 17How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 17
    "Animate opening applications."
  4. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 18How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 18
    Uncheck the box next to
    How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 19How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 19
    "Automatically hide and show the Dock." Animations can sometimes cause your mac to run slower. They look nice but aren't necessary to make your Mac run effectively.
  5. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 20How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 20
    Select Scale Effect from the drop-down menu.
    1. It's located next to Minimize Windows Using.
  6. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 21How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 21
    Exit to save your settings. Visual effects may sometimes cause your Mac to run slower as its an extra feature that can be resource-hungry. Turning them off can greatly increase the speed of your mac.
Method 4 of 4:

Closing Resource Heavy Programs

  1. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 22How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 22
    Open Finder (CMD + Spacebar) and type in Activity Monitor. Activity Monitor lets you see which programs on your Mac are taking up a lot of resources to run. Closing or uninstalling these programs can help speed up your mac.
  2. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 23How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 23
    Click on Activity Monitor to open it. Activity Monitor can also be found within the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder
  3. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 24How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 24
    Click on the CPU % tab. The higher the percentage, the more that resource is using up your CPU. Programs that use a lot of your CPU will slow down your computer.
  4. How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 25How to Speed Up a Mac Picture 25
    Close the programs with the highest CPU percentage. You can do this by clicking the program on the list and then the X in the top left-hand corner of the Activity Monitor.
    1. If you recognize the program and don't really need it, then consider removing the program from your mac. If it's making your mac run slow and you rarely use it then uninstalling it may be the best choice.
4 ★ | 2 Vote
macprogramsclickrun

You should read it

Maybe you are interested

Mac OS X