Speed Up Your Mac

[gabrielleitao]

I had previusly created a thread called DVD Studio Pro, where we could share tips and stuff about the software and also support. Now I make a thread called Speed Up Your Mac so we can talk about tips, opinions and support about how to speed up your Mac.

C'mon and lets talk about how to speed up our macs! I will start with some questions that I am curious about...

How do you speed up your Mac, let it stable and let it "healthy"? On my PC, I had to scan my computer for spywares and viruses once a week, check for bad registry on the windows registry and run a program called Norton System Works 2006, but I don't know anything about Macintosh Maintenance. What software do you suggest for that kind of stuff for Macintosh?

How do you clean up your Macintosh of old or unuseful files that simply have no need to be on my HDDs? 2. How do you clean your macintosh registry and check for bad registrys? Sorry but I don't know how that stuff works on Macs.

Norton System Works - Do you think it is a good idea to install Norton System Works on Intel Mac running Mac OS X? Is it helpful?

Thanks for the help and for coming to this thread, welcome aboard, lol.

[infinite-loop]

First thing you should do gabrielleitao is buy more Ram..!!

[bobw]

Macs don't have a registry.

DO NOT install any Norton product on OS X.

Some maintainance programs;

Onyx

Yasu

Cocktail

[gabrielleitao]

Originally Posted by infinite-loop

First thing you should do gabrielleitao is buy more Ram..!!

Yes, I know, I am going to upgrade to 1Gb or 2Gb soon of later... I cannot stay with 512MB. But thanks for telling me again.

[gabrielleitao]

Originally Posted by bobw

Macs don't have a registry.

DO NOT install any Norton product on OS X.

Some maintainance programs;

Onyx

Yasu

Cocktail

I thought that Macs didnt have a registry like you said, but I wasnt very sure of that. Thanks for telling me that. I will try the URLs you sent me. I just have one question left, though: Why is it bad to install Norton produts on Mac OS X? I've heard it before but noone could tell me WHY...

[nixgeek]

Well, Symantec hasn't support Mac OS X with their Norton products for some years now, but for some reason they still sell the Mac OS X version (it's for older versions for 10.0-10.1.5 I think). Even still, some people have reported it fubar-ing their Macs even when it was supported. So it's best to stay away from them.

Heck, they even do their fair share of damage in the Windows world as well!

[jbarley]

Originally Posted by bobw

Macs don't have a registry.

DO NOT install any Norton product on OS X.

Some maintainance programs;

Onyx

Yasu

Cocktail

Also this one...
TinkerTool System
http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerToolSys.html

which I really like.
jb

[Natobasso]

All tools aforementioned are awesome. Also, you have Disk Utility which is already installed on your computer. Repair Permissions using this Util at least once a month, and use it first whenever your computer has issues.

Since OS X is a dynamic file system, there's no longer any need to "defragment" your drive as the system is constantly doing it for you.

Another great thing to do, though not always feasible, is to leave as much of your hard drive free as possible. Depending on the apps you use, virtual memory is employed to handle overflow that RAM can't handle. If your drive's full you are limiting your Virtual Memory. It is slower than RAM but it's there for support for memory hungry apps.

I got a program from versiontracker.com called CacheOut and it's great at clearing basic caches that build up over time. Mainly internet files, but some others as well.

Finally, maybe once a month or so boot up with your system disc 1 (don't reinstall os x) and File/Open Disk Utility and Repair Disk and Repair Permissions. This really helps speed things up again.

Unlike PCs, most Mac apps don't have Uninstallers, so you'll have to search for app names to find all accompanying files to delete, but this can free up some hard drive space for you.

Okay, now back to my life.