5 Easy way to speed up your old mac(iMac,Mac Pro,Macbook),Omaha NE

With time, your machine seems to be slower,  no?
Here is 5 easy way to improve performances and speed up the whole thing.(iMac,Mac,Macbook)

Foreword and warning:
-You could be tempted to use an app called MacKeeper.  Me, myself and I, DO NOT recommend at all the use of this... well, this thing.
Some call it MacKrapper, and I concur 100%. 

- Backup your stuff.  Always.  Always backup your stuff. 
For that,  there is Time Machine, or even better a Time Capsule.  I can not praise enough Time Machine, and when coupled with a Time Capsule, it's nothing short of orgasmic.  See under External HDD, I'll show you a fantastic way to backup your stuff and bullet proof your life. 



Easy-Quicky

Start Up Items 
Yes, it's cool to have 5 apps opening at boot, but you are draining your system right from the start. 
If you can avoid it, it's better.  Furthermore, you are unlikely to use 3 or 5 apps right from the start. 
Also, take a look at your Menu bar: having 10 items up there does no good for you: You most likely will only use a few.
Go to System Preferences > Users and Groups > Login Items
Uncheck at will. I roughly uncheck everything but the critical. 

Purge
A quick and very easy way to purge your RAM:  Open Terminal and just type "purge" , without the quotes you silly!  Don't forget to press enter! (#justsayin')
You need 10.7 + for purge 


Widgets
Ditto, get rid of what you don't use.  Furthermore, if you really miss them, you can always re-install them in a click.


Add More RAM (memory)
Yes, it costs, but there is no secret!  Adding more RAM will greatly increase the performances of your machine, it's by far the most efficient fix.  
You do not need to buy your RAM from Apple, as they charge way too much!
This 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz  module cost less than $125, compared to the $300 - $400 charged by Apple.

Why: 
When your memory start to run low, your OS will "swap" electronic memory to "virtual" memory. Virtual memory is nothing less than Hard Drive space used as memory.  The issue is that the speed (Read/Write) of an Hard Drive compared to pure electronic memory is much slower... hence it simply takes more time and make your computer appears to be sluggish.

- If you do not know what type of memory you need, check under "About this Mac" > More Info > Memory 
- If you do not know how to change the memory, follow this link
- Be aware that some iMac,  i.e 21.5 inches cannot have a memory upgrade  

- Pairing the memory:
☞  If you have only 2 slots, (i.e Mac Mini, most of Macbook, Macbook pro, Macbook air) you will have to change the memory completely: It is NOT recommended to add just one memory: You cannot have one 2 GB and one 4 GB.  Mixing memory modules only works if you have 4 memory slots. 
If you have 2 memory slot, you'll have to change both and get the same size, i.e 2x4GB or 2x8GB 
☞ If you have 4 memory slots, i.e iMac 27inches,   you can add more memory by pairing it correctly, hence you do NOT have to change all the memory modules
Example:  You already have 4GB, and want to upgrade to 24 GB by adding 16GB as  2x8 GB 

(iMac is upright)
Slot 1 --> 4GB (Top)
Slot 2 --> 8 GB 
Slot 3 --> 4GB 
Slot 4 --> 8 GB (Bottom) 


De-cluster
Easier said than done, but you probably have more junk on your hard drive than you would admit. I know, it's a tedious job that nobody wants to do, but it works ...
So here is an easy way to de-cluster:  

Get yourself a copy of: 
- Trial version of the "Classic" Clean My Mac, not the new "Clean My Mac 2"
- Free copy of App Cleaner

Run the trial version of Clean My Mac, there is a limit of ~500MB
Be careful and read the preference pane.

As you can see, just Google Earth and Garmin account for 6GB of space.
Once you have reached the limit,  close the app and run App Cleaner on Clean My Mac and select ONLY the plist, delete the Plist, and re-start Clean My Mac

Automagically, you'll restart with a brand new trial version.
You can do the same by manually deleting the plist file located at: ~/Library/Preferences/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.plist

Remove Un-used and obsolete Apps 
Now that you have App Cleaner, use it.  You can trash those apps that you have not used for the past 2 years. 

Reboot
I have seen Macs with 60 days+ without a reboot
From time to time, it's a good idea to reboot: it takes 20 sec and will give your machine a breather, clears the swap and RAM   



DME Computer Services. 
iMac,Macbook Pro, Mac Pro computer repair Omaha, NE.