Tips on Speeding Up Your Mac

On three different occasions across the past several months, I have come within a single mouse click of ordering a Windows PC. Ultimately I decided that it probably wasn't worth spending $1,700 on a super-souped-up new machine to ensure that I wouldn't have to wait 10 seconds between a cut and paste operation or 45 minutes for a Spotlight search ... but I was, in fact, That. Close. Honestly, the main things that kept me in Mac Land were having about 15 years of photos stored and organized in iPhoto (through which I put together books and other things every year) and the knowledge that, were I to switch back to a Windows machine, I would also have to re-purchase and re-configure my music studio software. Nightmarish? Yes (particularly the iPhoto bit). But still ... I was That. Close.

Some of you have been privy to my OS X Yosemite and El Capitan (hereafter OSXYEC) rants. And I do stand firm in my belief that these are the Worst Operating Systems in the History of Mankind. But rather than continuing to whine about OSXYEC, I decided that I would do battle with OSXYEC ... and that I would then share any potentially useful insights with the IT universe. Thus, we begin.

Battling OSXYEC - The Magnificent Seven

1. For a variety of workarounds that will let you bask in the warm glow of Windows 95 nostalgia, simply Google something like "speed up El Capitan." The advice you receive will range from startup item considerations to transparency and window minimization tips to arcane command line entries related to animations. None of these tweaks will impact your machine's performance in the least, of course, but this step will enable you to converse semi-intelligently in a Mac geek fashion should the need arise at your next dinner party.
   
2. Remove as many applications as possible from your dock. After all, how often do you really need to open Photos / GarageBand / Mission Control / Dashboard / FaceTime / iBooks / Photo Booth / whatever else? Does the simple act of removing these things from your dock directly cause performance to increase? I have no idea. But I do know that if they aren't in your dock, you will be less likely to open them ... and if you don't open them, they can't use up system resources. Fixed.
   
3. Unless you absolutely have to use a Microsoft Office product for something, use Google Docs, Google Sheets, and/or Google Slides instead. Why? Again, because if you don't open an Office product it can't use up system resources. I realize that if you're using a Mac for business purposes, this might not always be a viable option. But if you're using a Mac for business purposes, you should be able to convince your employer to upgrade your machine to the 1TB minimum RAM that apparently is needed for applications to run smoothly in OSXYEC.
   
4. Completely clear your desktop of all files and folders and just use a solid color background. This may or may not have any impact on performance, but I find that the spinning pinwheel of death looks better on a solid background than on a family picture (or whatever else you might choose as your desktop wallpaper).
   
5. Delete or disable the Activity Monitor utility. The Activity Monitor utility shows, among other things, CPU and Memory usage. In theory, this utility should be very helpful as it allows you to see exactly which applications and processes are hogging your resources. For example, you are likely to see roughly 273 instances of Google Chrome Helper at any point in time unless you are careful with your tabs and your plug-in management. The main problem with Activity Monitor, however, is that it highlights the fact that under OSXYEC, your computer is running like a Commodore 64 despite the fact that well over half of your memory is unused and your CPU is 93% idle. I, for one, can do without the taunting.
   
6. Embrace previous versions of key applications. OSXYEC is what caused me to shift completely away from recording simultaneous video when making audio recordings in my home studio. There were times when I clicked on iMovie 10 and it would literally take three or four minutes to open completely ... followed by mind-numbing lag associated with importing an actual video file and trying to edit it. Fear not. In OSXYEC, iMovie 9 -- sporting absolutely blazing (comparatively speaking) performance and a much better interface -- still lives in the Applications folder. And in case you don't like the new Photos application, the previous version of iPhoto lives in the same place as well.
   
7. Use Gmail (or Yahoo! Mail ... or the United States Postal Service) instead of Mac Mail. Continuing with my "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" theme, the best way to avoid a pinwheel when you are reading and/or responding to a message is to utilize a form of communication that doesn't require you to open Mac Mail. The careful readers in the crowd probably have reasoned (quite correctly) that this recommendation combined with recommendation #2 above would provide an absolute lock on performance enhancement. As for the time sink, it took roughly seven minutes for me to export my Mac Mail contacts, load them into Gmail, and organize them appropriately.* Win.

I hope that my efforts here will improve the lives of you and the Mac users around you. Please distribute as you see fit. And if you're still running Mountain Lion or Mavericks, as I am with my Macbook Pro and the iMac at my office, thank your lucky stars and stay away from Software Update.

*(note: please update your address book with mw0705@gmail.com and strike mw0705@mac.com)

Peace,
Mike