Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Desktop Loaded w/Files-100s+ Issues??

walterwhite

walterwhite

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 22, 2011
273
5
South Central PA
I have looked in to this and it still seems to be up in the air whether or not a Desktop loaded with files will cause issues with a mac. It has always seemed like those with a loaded desktop... and I mean more than will fit, and they are STACKED on top of the HD in the upper right corner, have always had problems. Not sure if its a symptom or a cause, so I am turning to the great minds of this forum.
Some say the desktop files and folders are more "available" so tying up resources... others say the desktop is just another folder so should be able to handle whatever you can throw at it.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for yours!
 
Mal

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
18
Orlando
It will. The Desktop is a pretty important place on a Mac, and the icons are refreshed regularly, including previews, plus size and position. Having a significant amount on data on the Desktop (including inside of folders on the Desktop) will cause the computer to use more RAM and CPU cycles just to display the Desktop, but perhaps more importantly, sometimes it will fail to finish it's cataloging of the data it stores about the Desktop before it tries to begin again or before shutdown/sleep can complete, and this can cause severe corruption. On a number of occasions, I've dealt with computers that had multiple GB's of data stored on the desktop and were running very slowly. Each time, simply moving the items on the Desktop to another location inside the home folder caused a noticeable and immediate speed benefit that lasted (at least until the user did the same thing again, which happens far too often, despite stern warnings).

jW
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom