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Turn Off Unnecessary Processes

carfac

carfac

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 18, 2006
1,242
30
Hi:

OK, I am a windows dude, you can tell. I need to turn off unnecessary processes on a Mac. In "Windows", I would edit the startup processes... and in Computer admin, turn off all "services" I did not need.

What do I do on a Mac? I need it to be permanent, not temporary (like I know how to shut off iTunes helper for a session- I want it off after restarts, too.

Also, I want to pare this mac down to just the essentials- any advice for what to kill, and what I should not touch?

Thanks!
 
Tallest Skil said:
You should let OS X do its thing. You don't need to turn of those processes. OS X knows how to manage RAM and processing power.
Click to expand...

No--- you do not understand.

I NEED to turn off iTunes Helper. I NEED to turn off Indexing. I NEED to turn off Software Updates. I would also like to know what other processes I may not need to run this computer, so I can safely remove those. I have no plans to remove things like memory management, and thus why I was asking for that bit of help (though I would like to cut out all power management if that would not adversely effect things!)

I want a bare-bones mac to run one thing, and run it well. I have no need for anything else at all on this computer.
 
  1. You can remove iTunes Helper from Login Items under the Accounts preference pane. It will be re-added when you launch iTunes.
  2. You can prevent Spotlight from indexing your hard drive by adding your hard drive to the Privacy tab of the Spotlight preference pane.
  3. You can disable automatic checking for updates under the Software Update preference pane.

PS. Mac OS X really does manage memory and processes much better than Windows does. Aside from those items, I'd leave everything else stock. Without going deep, there isn't much to change.
 
Cool- perfect! Thanks! That is what I needed!

So other than those three, everything else is necessary.

I am running Pro Tools on a 2.16 iMac, and I want that to run perfect... and nothing else!
 
carfac said:
I NEED to turn off iTunes Helper. I NEED to turn off Indexing. I NEED to turn off Software Updates... ...I have no need for anything else at all on this computer.
Click to expand...

WHY? I'm not trying to be condescending; I'm genuinely curious. Why do you need every last thousandth of a gigahertz and bit of RAM (yes, bit) on your machine?
 
carfac said:
No--- you do not understand.

I NEED to turn off iTunes Helper. I NEED to turn off Indexing. I NEED to turn off Software Updates. I would also like to know what other processes I may not need to run this computer, so I can safely remove those. I have no plans to remove things like memory management, and thus why I was asking for that bit of help (though I would like to cut out all power management if that would not adversely effect things!)
.
Click to expand...

I can understand that you want to turn off indexing (becouse you are coming from Windows). AND i agree that Microsoft Windows memory management is awful :)

You can get a bit understanding about running processes on your Mac there:
http://triviaware.com/macprocess

However before killing these processes check out this:
http://www.macgeekery.com/gspot/2006-12/turning_off_unneeded_services
 
BSD has allways been the best at memory management

Mac IMHO sucked before OS X simply because it like windows managed memory horribly. Windows improved their subsystem enormously when they released XP, they took some hints from the *NIX type systems. Mac went the smart route when they built the whole system on a BSD core. Any *NIX system will compartmentalize any memory usage in order to manage it. I call it the ice cube tray effect. If one process is spinning out of control it will be segregated from the rest of the memory pool and eventually be zombified. *NIX systems even do housecleaning on them selves. With the ability to use UNIX utilities like ps and top you can "renice" processes that you need to keep running for uptime purposes. What a perfect world we would live in if every subsystem was UNIX underneath. All OS's would play nice and it wouldnt really matter what camp you are from.

AHH one day.

Perfect example, I will have photoshop, illustrator, firefox, vmware and itunes all running on 2GB or ram. If I hear my fan getting loud I know its heating up due to "swapping" or the CPU working under load. If I leave the other apps idle and just use one app while this is happening, it evens out the load and stops prioritizing the idle procs rather quickly. I have never locked up even while running windows XP in a VMWare machine alongside all these apps. The only way i notice a lot of "clocking" is if an app is poorly written. I even run crossover to play counter strike, never drops frames or swaps on me.

ROCK SOLID,

dont get me wrong there are times when the fan spins up due to all the processing, but it regulates itself well and NEVER locks.

Its robust, it takes punches to the face and keeps rolling, its kinda like my Jeep. You can roll those damn things and manage to push them over and drive em home. Frikkin Beasts man!!



If Microsloth will just pull thier head out of thier Ar@*
 
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