I recently switched to mac and I have been installing a lot of applications on my mac. I want to know if there are any applications affecting the system's performance. How to view all installed/running applications(services or anything that is related to performance) ?
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how to get a set of running applications?
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The Applications that are currently running have a small blue light below their symbol in the Dock.
Applications that are not running will not affect your system performance. If they are running, I assume you need them. Activity Monitor will tell you how much CPU power and Memory each application is using.
Applications that are not running will not affect your system performance. If they are running, I assume you need them. Activity Monitor will tell you how much CPU power and Memory each application is using.
... except that not all running apps appear on the Dock. They will, however, appear in Activity Monitor.
Thanks, and would you please suggest any methods to monitor items being activated at the system startup (the ones I've installed) ? And things to consider to keep the system performance at a good level when installing new applications (what kind of applications to be avoided etc? )
Look at the 2nd and 3rd points in the following list to find what apps are launching at startup, as well as other performance suggestions.
Performance tips for Mac OS X
You're welcome! Since you recently switched to Mac, you may find some useful tips here, as well:
Helpful Information for Any Mac User
The programs that are started at startup are listed under "System Preferences" -> "Users & Groups" -> "Login Items"
I would recommend installing & using everything you need
What I completely stopped using is all sorts of monitoring software, i.e. stuff that shows your CPU temperature, GPU status, etc. They don't slow down the system, but make you waste time looking at them and then trying to "optimize" your system to achieve whatever number or system state you have in mind.
.... and some may be shown in /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Users/yourusername/Library/LaunchAgents/
... and the blue light may have been disabled in Sys Pref under Lion so it would need to be enabled first.