Some minor settings that you can follow will actually improve the performance of your Mac. The first and basic rule of maintaining your computer is to ensure that you have some free space on your hard disk.
Ideally, you should have at least 10% free space for processing and page file management. Then there are some extra software that you have in your computer, then you need to get rid of it. You can either find some files that should be removed or you rely on the software, like a MacBook cleaner, to do the job for you.
Clean up your desktop
This is one of the most overlooked tips of all because it is so easy and people assume this is already taken care of. Even I would have my desktop cluttered after some time if I do not take the precautions. It is always good practice to have a neater desktop, and it is not only good for your eyes but for your computer that loads everything while booting up. You can perhaps start by re arranging the icons and then deleting the unimportant icons you have there. If you cannot delete then maybe placing them somewhere else will clean up the clutter. Also make use of new folders to put all similar files in one place.
Repaid your Permissions
Mac comes with an in-built disk utility software. You just use the software on your main hard drive. It will offer two options ‘repair disk permissions’ or ‘verify disk permissions’. It will take a little bit of time but better you try them both and it will smooth out a lot of issues with the Mac OS.
System Preferences for Mac
The system preferences can be easily found under the Apple logo. This will allow you to see which login items are currently active. You can disable all or most of them if you want because they are definitely slowing down your computer. It just means that the following programs will start when you boot your laptop. If at times when you notice that your computer stops to respond when you login or logout at times then these applications are probably the culprit. Only keep those login items that you need.
A good MacBook Cleaner software
You can also download a good software that will help you with the problem. To mention a few are
- Onyx for Mac
- MacKeeper
- Disk Inventory X
- OmniDiskSweeper
- Mac Cleanup
You can easily find these online and download the one you need. Just keep an eye on the Mac OS version and see if there is a compatible version. All of their websites have enough detail about that. Once you have it downloaded, you can place it under ‘Applications’ and then you will have it ready. They will delete some files that are unnecessary or that may be occupying too much space in your hard drive.
Other Resource Hogging Applications
The Dashboard is one of the key features of a Mac computer. It houses all the widgets and shortcuts to small apps that you may frequently need for little tasks. It is an effective app but it does take a lot of computer resources to run and maintain. The more apps that are running under Dashboard, the more memory it will consume and consistently use up the RAM that your computer has. If you really need all the apps that are running, then you might be better off spending a bit more on higher RAM or a faster RAM. They cost some amount of money but they will definitely make good use of the RAM that you have and the effect of improvement will show across all applications on your computer.
Conclusion
There are other MacBook Cleaner software out there in the App Store and third party websites, then you can search for those as well. You may need to have a look at how you can uninstall them because they are free and only good for a single use at a time. It is a good idea to just follow some basic space management skills and then you will have a much longer life maintaining your laptop.