In System Preferences>Dock, make sure that the ‘Show indicators for open
applications’ option is ticked and then close unused apps from your Dock.1
System Preferences
Open your Mac’s System Preferences
and then click on the ‘Users & Groups’
pane. If you have multiple user accounts on
your Mac then select your personal account
in the left column.2
Login items
Clickonthepadlockiconandenter
your usernameandpasswordtomake
changestothesepreferencesandthen
click on the‘LoginItems’tabtoseewhat
automaticallyloadswhenyoulogin.3
Removeitems
If thereareappsthatopenautomatically
thatyoudon’tabsolutelyneed,clickonthem
tohighlightthemandthenclickonthe‘–’
(minus)iconunderneath.Theitemwillnow
beremovedcompletely.Disable
login items
Speed up your Mac’s startup time
Sometimes, certain apps may have issues
that cause them to use up more than their
fair share of your Mac’s system resources- perhaps there is an update available to
address the problem? You can see exactly
which apps are overloading your CPU by
using your Mac’s built-in Activity Monitor
app. Here’s how...
Identify
problem apps
4
View memory usage
Select the ‘Memory’ tab and then
monitor the Memory Pressure chart at the
bottom. If an app displays as red then it is
using up a lot of memory.5
View disk activity
Solid-state disks are fast and can
cope with heavy activity. Older, mechanical
disks less so. Close apps that read or write
large amounts.3
Close app
If an app is causing too much drain on
the CPU, click on it to highlight it and then
click on the ‘X’ icon in the top-left corner
to instantly close the app.2
View processes
Open Activity Monitor and click on the
‘CPU’ tab. Then go to View>Windowed
Processes to view all open apps by the
amount of CPU they are using.1
Launch Activity Monitor
The quickest way to launch this app
is to hit Cmd+spacebar and then enter
the name. It usually resides in the Utilities
folder in Applications.Find out which apps are causing
the biggest power-drainDisable your Dashboard
Does anybody actually use Dashboard,
the Mac widget launcher any more? So
why have it on standby using up power?
Go to System Preferences>Mission
Control and then click on the menu next
to ‘Dashboard’ and change it to ‘Off’.