Question about Downloads Folder

[Slothzilla]

Ive recently embarked upon a crusade to clean up my mac and increase its speed. It dawned on me that in the entire duration of me owning my computer I've never touched my downloads folder. Could the countless files downloaded to it slow down my computer?

 

[GGJstudios]

Ive recently embarked upon a crusade to clean up my mac and increase its speed. It dawned on me that in the entire duration of me owning my computer I've never touched my downloads folder. Could the countless files downloaded to it slow down my computer?

Having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. Whatever you do, don't fall for the marketing hype of "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps, which are useless and can do more harm than good.

If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

 

[Slothzilla]

Having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. Whatever you do, don't fall for the marketing hype of "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps, which are useless and can do more harm than good.

If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

Thanks! I checked my activity monitor and its really long and has a lot of stuff running that I'm not entirely sure what the tasks are however they all have my username as the owner of said process and none sound malicious. Is there a way to check and see exactly what these tasks are

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks! I checked my activity monitor and its really long and has a lot of stuff running that I'm not entirely sure what the tasks are however they all have my username as the owner of said process and none sound malicious. Is there a way to check and see exactly what these tasks are

You could Google each one to find information about it, but it's very likely they are all legitimate processes, many of which are components of OS X.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks! I checked my activity monitor and its really long and has a lot of stuff running that I'm not entirely sure what the tasks are however they all have my username as the owner of said process and none sound malicious. Is there a way to check and see exactly what these tasks are

The app Etrecheck is really good for this. Run the app and it will produce a report showing all third party apps and processes running. If you want, post the report up here and we can help you decipher it. The results are anonymized.

 

[Slothzilla]

The app Etrecheck is really good for this. Run the app and it will produce a report showing all third party apps and processes running. If you want, post the report up here and we can help you decipher it. The results are anonymized.

Below is the ere scan

Problem description:
a lot of things running in activity monitor. Simply want to know what these processes actually are

EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)
Report generated March 12, 2015 at 4:59:40 PM EDT
Download EtreCheck from [url]http://etresoft.com/etrecheck[/url]

Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.
Click the [Adware! - Remove] links for help removing adware.

Hardware Information: ℹ️
    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) (Technical Specifications)
    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2
    1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
    4 GB RAM Upgradeable
        BANK 0/DIMM0
            2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
        BANK 1/DIMM0
            2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
    Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported
    Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
    Battery Health: Normal - Cycle count 219

Video Information: ℹ️
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
        Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software: ℹ️
    OS X 10.10.2 (14C1510) - Time since boot: 3:51:27

Disk Information: ℹ️
    APPLE HDD HTS545050A7E362 disk0 : (500.11 GB)
        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB 
        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 499.25 GB (394.38 GB free)
        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>  [Recovery]: 650 MB 

    HL-DT-ST DVDRW  GS31N  

USB Information: ℹ️
    Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in) 
    Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub 
        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller 
    Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver 
    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad 

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ℹ️
    Mac App Store and identified developers

Adware: ℹ️
    Geneio [Adware! - Remove]

Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
        /Library/Application Support/VirtualBox
    [loaded]    org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (4.3.14) [Click for support]
    [loaded]    org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (4.3.14) [Click for support]
    [loaded]    org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (4.3.14) [Click for support]
    [loaded]    org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (4.3.14) [Click for support]

Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [running]    com.hp.productresearch.plist [Click for support]

Launch Daemons: ℹ️
    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]
    [loaded]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Click for support]
    [not loaded]    org.eyebeam.SelfControl.plist [Click for support]
    [not loaded]    org.virtualbox.startup.plist [Click for support]

User Launch Agents: ℹ️
    [loaded]    com.genieo.completer.download.plist  [Adware! - Remove]
    [loaded]    com.genieo.completer.update.plist  [Adware! - Remove]
    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]
    [not loaded]    org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist [Click for support]

User Login Items: ℹ️
    iTunesHelper    Application  (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
    Transmission    UNKNOWN  (missing value)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
    FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.305 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
    Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.305 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
    Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
    SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    Silverlight: Version: 5.1.20913.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 15.0.0 - SDK 10.10 Check version

User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
    thinkorswim plugin_x86_64: Version: Unknown
    tossc plugin_x86_64: Version: Unknown

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
    Flash Player  [Click for support]

Time Machine: ℹ️
    Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
         5%    WindowServer
         1%    DashboardClient
         0%    fontd
         0%    NotificationCenter
         0%    SystemUIServer

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
    153 MB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
    120 MB    Safari
    90 MB    Mail
    77 MB    Microsoft Word
    77 MB    Messages

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
    129 MB    Free RAM
    1.73 GB    Active RAM
    1.59 GB    Inactive RAM
    671 MB    Wired RAM
    2.39 GB    Page-ins
    33 MB    Page-outs

Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
    Mar 12, 2015, 01:36:06 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/DesktopServicesHelper_2015-03-12-133606_[redacted].cpu_resource.diag [Click for details]
    Mar 12, 2015, 01:06:21 PM    Self test - passed
    Mar 11, 2015, 06:21:32 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/DesktopServicesHelper_2015-03-11-182132_[redacted].cpu_resource.diag [Click for details]

 

[GGJstudios]

You have Geneio adware.

Remove unwanted adware that displays pop-up ads and graphics on your Mac
Adware can be removed by using this tool: AdwareMedic

I would also delete the com.hp.productresearch.plist.

How to find/delete "HP Product Research" and "Event Handler"?

 

[Slothzilla]

You have Geneio adware.

Remove unwanted adware that displays pop-up ads and graphics on your Mac
Adware can be removed by using this tool: AdwareMedic

I would also delete the com.hp.productresearch.plist.

How to find/delete "HP Product Research" and "Event Handler"?

Thank you! Turns out I had 5 or 6 different extensions or malicious programs running that adwaremedic detected and removed. I also delete the HP product research application.

Thanks again for your help!