If you’ve been using your MacOS notebook or desktop for some time you may have noticed that things are slowing down: screen refresh, on-disk operations, programs open & close. This is eventually happens to all computers as we clutter the system with additional files and programs.
Most people don’t look forward to upgrading their Mac and all the cast and hassles that come with it. Instead, you may be able to improve your Mac’s performance by taking a few, inexpensive steps proven to speed things back up. Here’s how:
Clean up your hard drive
Cleaning your hard drive is by far the best and easiest way to speed up your Macbook. Go through your hard drive and clean out everything that’s slowing it down.
What exactly is slowing it down? Caches, logs, apps, widgets, language packs, plugins, hidden trash, and large files. Get rid of these things to increase the speed of your Mac. It’s true that you can do this all manually, but finding all of these items and removing them takes time. Plus, you have to know where to look.
One of the top rated tools on the market is Dr. Cleaner. Dr. Cleaner is an all-in-one free app that offers Memory Optimization, Disk Cleaning and System Monitoring to keep your Mac optimized for the best performance.
Here’s a list of the impressive features Dr. Cleaner offers.
Memory optimizer
Disk mapping/file management
- Views your entire disk by file or folder size so you can determine which files or folders use the most space.
- Dr. Cleaner scans all your disks and creates a clickable map of the files on your disk, color-coded by file type showing detailed information on each file.
Managing large files
- One-click scan for big files including your cloud-based drives (customizable size from 10 MB and above)
- Apply multiple filters of size, date, name and type
- Dr. Cleaner create “safe house” for your large files thereby preventing them from being unintentionally deleted.
Duplicate finder
- Quick scan for duplicate files–Dr. Cleaner has the fast and accurate scanning technique that covers your entire folder system.
- Smart selection–duplicates are selected not only by file names but also by their contents. Files are shown in detailed previews. Dr. Cleaner can also help you “decide” which copy to delete by presenting “Auto Select” button.
- Easy and safe decision — duplicates can be sorted by file type and listed in their full route for you to track. You can decide which way to clean these files – either by putting them in to Trash or deleting them permanently.
A better way to manage your apps
- Auto-clean leftover files of deleted apps
- Easily manage all apps installed on your Mac
- Clearly and easily view all app information installed on your Mac by name, size, and last opened date
System requirements: OS X 10.10 or later, 64-bit processor, 29 Mb of hard disk space.
Manage your startup items
Obviously, a clean startup helps speed up a Macbook that’s running slowly. No wasted time waiting for Chrome, Firefox, or Safari to load. Instant access! Well, when your Mac boots up, it runs a lot of unnecessary apps that slow your Mac down.
Take control of your Mac again! Go to your System Preferences > Users & Groups and then click on your username. Now click on Login Items. Select a program you don’t immediately need when your Mac starts up, and then click the “–” button below.
Taking care of these startup programs is an easy way to help add speed to your Mac.
Turn off visual effects
Most Macs are now capable of running Mac OS X Mavericks without any trouble. But some people prefer to keep the dock static to prevent slowdown. Click System Preferences > Dock and uncheck the following check boxes:
- Magnification
- Animate opening applications
- Automatically hide and show the dock
- Turn off accessibility
Now click on Minimize windows using and change Genie Effect to Scale Effect.
Update your software
Make sure you perform a software update for Mac OS X and all the apps installed in Mac. Click on the Apple icon in the menu bar and choose Software Update (or open Software Update in the App Store).
If you have apps purchased outside of the App Store, they will need to be updated separately. You’ll usually find Check for Software Update from the program name in the menu bar.
You should also make sure that Mac OS X keeps itself up to date. Click on System Preferences > App Store and ensure that Automatically Check For Updates is ticked. You can also tick Install App Updates,which will automatically ensure that apps are updated.
