Mac OS X: Optimization

On the Internet you can find a lot of information about Mac OS X optimization. I picked out some tips for you that I found very useful when optimizing my Mac.

Update all your software
Use the Apple Software Update but also check all the other applications on you’re system for updates. This gives you the most recent software with the latest bug fixes and frequently some speed optimizations. You won’t see a big improvement in speed but you get a more stable system and sometimes even a little bit snappier.

Clean up your login items
This is a classic tip, which is very easy. Remove the unused login items by navigating to “System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items”. Select the software items that you don’t need any more and click the minus button.

Reset the PRAM and NVRAM
This is an advanced trick which could speed up you’re boot-up time significantly. For example my MacBook Pro boot up took very long. It was waiting on the first grey screen, just before the loading indicator appears. After resetting the PRAM of my Mac the time was shortened from 8 to 2 seconds. More information about the PRAM reset can be found on the Apple website: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

Use Onyx
Run Onyx once a month on “Automatic” mode to clean the caches. This is not a guaranteed speed improvement but it is not bad to clean the caches once in a while. It is possible to get a corrupt cache file which will slow down you’re Mac.

Check the Console (advanced users only)
If you’re an expert Mac user you are able to do some other speed improvements but be warned this can harm you’re Mac.

• Startup the “Console” application by going to “Applications > Utilities > Console”
• Find and select “All Messages”
• On the left you will see a windows with messages. These ‘log’ messages are send by the applications running on you’re Mac.
• Search for the first log message of this system boot. You can identify this by the time difference between two messages. Take a look at the image for an example. In the image you see that my system booted at 18:57.
• Read all the upcoming messages to look for potential problems. Just scroll trough these messages and search for errors and warnings, or even software you are not using anymore. For example: I found out that there still was some VMWare Fusion software booting which I don’t use anymore.
  • Solution 1: Indentify the messages and search for a solution.
    Some times just searching for the logged problem in Google will give you a good idea about the issue. But make sure you have more than one source when for the proposed solution. You could still harm you’re Mac by executing the proposed solution.
  • Solution 2: Look in the “LaunchAgents”, “LaunchDaemons” and “StartupItems” folders.
    Take a look in these folders which you will find in “~/Library” and “/Library”. (If you don’t know how to find these folders this guide probably isn’t for you.) After opening each of these folders you have to look for files/daemons from the software that is reporting an error or that you don’t use anymore. You can easily remove these items but be careful you could do some damage to you’re computer. That is why it is important to backup the removed files from these folders to another folder. For example to a backup folder on you’re desktop so you can restore the files if a problem arises.

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