#BEST MAC APPLICATIONS 2015 SOFTWARE#
#BEST MAC APPLICATIONS 2015 FREE#
#BEST MAC APPLICATIONS 2015 WINDOWS#

Click on the Memory header to sort the processes by memory footprint. Alternately, you can click on the Memory tab (above right), which shows how much of your MacвЂ™s RAM is being consumed by various apps and background processes. Activity Monitor opens in the CPU tab (above left), organized by the percentage of your CPUвЂ™s capacity each app or background process is using. Watch Activity Monitor.В While this type of digging qualifies as вЂњgoing down the rabbit holeвЂќ in my experience - likely to lead to a lot of (mostly fruitless) Google searches - using Spotlight to load Activity Monitor (hidden in your MacвЂ™s Applications > Utilities folder) can help you identify apps that are eating unreasonable amounts of CPU and RAM for whatever reason. Adobe is one of the companies that keeps secondary apps running in the background to verify licenses and offer updates youвЂ™ll typically have to fully uninstall the original apps in question to get the вЂњhelpersвЂќ off your Mac.ДЈ. You can get a better sense of how many вЂњhelpersвЂќ are hanging out by looking at the top right of your screen, though the icon list will also include AppleвЂ™s OS X icons for Time Machine, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Volume, Spotlight, and Notification Center it may also include icons for currently active apps (such as Tweetbot, shown) which donвЂ™t have helpers. The System Preferences window doesnвЂ™t show you all of the items that auto-load with your Mac. Your Mac will typically load a little faster, and save a little memory in the process.

Select any items you no longer actively use every day, hit the minus button, and theyвЂ™ll disappear from the list. Under the Login Items tab, youвЂ™ll find a collection of apps - typically вЂњhelpersвЂќ - that the Mac automatically loads every time it restarts. DisableВ Unneeded Login Items.В Go to the Apple menu at the top left of your screen, choose System Preferences, then select Users & Groups.

#BEST MAC APPLICATIONS 2015 WINDOWS#

YouвЂ™d be amazed at how much faster a Mac feels when a bunch of Photoshop windows have all been closed.Дў. Close apps youвЂ™re not actively using, and within active apps, close windows (such as images in Photoshop, or documents in Preview) when youвЂ™re done with them.

This is especially helpful if you have 8GB or less RAM, or a dual-core CPU.

#BEST MAC APPLICATIONS 2015 FREE#

Apple has addedВ some automatic resource-saving features to OS X, such as freezing currently inactive Safari tabs, but itвЂ™s wise to free up as much of your MacвЂ™s RAM and CPU processing power as possible. Check Your Dock.В Those little dots under the dock icons are there to indicate apps that are currently in use, and as a general statement, the more apps you have open at a time, the more things your Mac is juggling at once.

#BEST MAC APPLICATIONS 2015 SOFTWARE#

But software is another big part of the story, so thatвЂ™s where IвЂ™m starting.ДЎ. Part of the reason my Mac runs silent is the hardware - IвЂ™ve added a few things that make it more efficient than a stock 2011 iMac. WhileВ you could go and buy a new fridge, thatвЂ™s not necessary -В if you optimize the way youвЂ™re using and managing the fridgeвЂ™s space, youвЂ™ll be fine. At some point, the fridge will inevitably getВ overloaded and dirty itвЂ™s possibly going to stop working perfectly, too. Think of your Mac as being like an aging refrigerator thatвЂ™s constantly being opened and closed, primarilyВ holdingВ cold food in storage, while various cold items are being taken out, then replaced with hot food that needs to chill. The first four involve mostly free software, and the last three areВ small hardware upgradesвЂ¦ How could your older Mac be that quiet?вЂќД«elow, IвЂ™ll walk you through seven steps that will help you bring your older Mac to a hushed, zen-like state. Apple didnвЂ™t start selling iMacs with silent solid state drives (SSDs) or hybrid Fusion Drives until late 2012. Rarely does the volume level in my office climb above a whisper, an experience IвЂ™ve come to love so much that IвЂ™d never want to return to a loud computer. Thanks to El Capitan, myВ older (mid-2011) 27вЂі iMac is running better than it has in years: fast, quiet, and cool enough that it might as well be fanless. As expected, AppleвЂ™s release ofВ OS X El Capitan for Macs was less about adding major new features than вЂњrefining the experience and improving performanceвЂќ from Yosemite - in other words, under-the-hood optimizations to make anyВ Mac run more reliably than before.

Best mac applications 2015