Want your applications to start faster?

[beatle888]

i cant believe i did this...i typed this into the
terminal window and restarted. some people
over at versiontracker had this suggestion
to get applications to launch faster.

sudo update_prebinding -verbose -force -root /

then hit return

then type in your administrative password

then hit return

and then restart.

the first time you launch say photoshop it
might not seem any faster but after that
first launch all subsequent launches should be....
goes for other applications as well....here
is the whole review where i got the command
from.


"plaintiger Jun 16, 2002 woohoo! webchick! thank You so much! i know a lot of people are terrified at the thought of so much as launching Terminal (maybe it's the name that scares them , but i'm always grateful when somebody enlightens me to a simple command i can type that will let me throw away one or more pieces of software i've downloaded to accomplish the same thing...and what's more, the command You gave seems to do a much more complete job than either speedmeup or xoptimize - i've run both of those apps repeatedly and never seen a noticeable speed increase, whereas the first time i typed "sudo update_prebinding -verbose -force -root /" and restarted, i saw a dramatic decrease in the launch times of my apps. thank You thank You thank You! "

 

[DeadlyBreakfast]

Can you explain what that command actually does to speed up the launch of an app?

 

[robbieduncan]

Originally posted by DeadlyBreakfast
Can you explain what that command actually does to speed up the launch of an app?

Sure - what it does is update all of the binaries on your system. Every binary (of any sort of real use) is likely to call at least 1 function from at least 1 shared library (more likely it'll call lots from lots). At compile time the location of the libraries is not know. This means that when the app runs the system has to look up the address of every external function. This takes time. Updating the prebindings saves the locations of the functions so as the app does not have to look them up.

 

[Hemingray]

Just out of curiosity, if this improves startup times for apps, wouldn't Apple have somehow enabled this by default? (I know, just because it's better doesn't mean Apple automatically does it in OS X). I'm always a little leery about doing stuff like this, as inconsequential as it may be.

 

[chmorley]

Originally posted by Hemingray
Just out of curiosity, if this improves startup times for apps, wouldn't Apple have somehow enabled this by default? (I know, just because it's better doesn't mean Apple automatically does it in OS X). I'm always a little leery about doing stuff like this, as inconsequential as it may be.

Yes, Apple has turned this on by default with OS X 10.2. It is no longer necessary or helpful if you have Jaguar (although it will do no harm). The curious thing is that they didn't do it earlier.

Chris

 

[Thirteenva]

That command updates the prebinding, Jaguar(10.2) does this at boot. So there is no need to run this command on jaguar.

If your running 10.1 you could download MOX optimize or Xoptimize. They are nice little programs that will update prebinding for you. MOX optimize offers alot of nice features. Try it out.

 

[beatle888]

well folks,

i ran that command and im telling you it does
make applications launch faster. i dont know why
but it does....and im running jaguar.

this sucks i thought everybody would be excited.
well no biggy....but it DOES speed up application
launch in jaguar.

 

[chmorley]

Originally posted by beatle888
well folks,

i ran that command and im telling you it does
make applications launch faster. i dont know why
but it does....and im running jaguar.

this sucks i thought everybody would be excited.
well no biggy....but it DOES speed up application
launch in jaguar.

I think people aren't all that excited because this has been around for over a year--it's not new information for many of us who have been using OS X. There are 4-5 free applications that do it using a GUI (like the ones mentioned above). I ran a couple of them a few times under 10.1.x. It helped.

Apple says it's no longer necessary. Maybe they're wrong.

Chris

 

[cb911]

how is it possible that this helps speed up app lauch in 10.2 if it's already enabled by default?

oh well i guess i'll give it a try.

 

[mmmdreg]

Originally posted by cb911
how is it possible that this helps speed up app lauch in 10.2 if it's already enabled by default?

oh well i guess i'll give it a try.

well running that command takes longer than the entire bootup time which suggests that maybe the default run probably does not do the whole job...

 

[ryme4reson]

Another speed increase

This does help, but I found the best way to increase speed on my system was to change the theme. I am using a WIN XP theme, but OSX is truly fast. For the first time I am really impressed with the GUI reaction times of my machine. Aqua is just too slow.
Anyone else changed themes and noticed a speed increase??

 

[irmongoose]

Re: Another speed increase

Originally posted by ryme4reson
This does help, but I found the best way to increase speed on my system was to change the theme. I am using a WIN XP theme, but OSX is truly fast. For the first time I am really impressed with the GUI reaction times of my machine. Aqua is just too slow.
Anyone else changed themes and noticed a speed increase??

Okay, I understand that Aqua may be too slow, and by changing themes you find it to be faster.. but please, don't use Windows XP. It is THE most ugly thing I have ever seen in my life.. the blue and green combination is truly disgusting.

yuck.




irmongoose

 

[TimDaddy]

Is it my imagination, or did my computer actually start up faster? It also seems that the web pages are rendering faster. Is this possible from that command?

 

[scem0]

Re: Re: Another speed increase

Originally posted by irmongoose


Okay, I understand that Aqua may be too slow, and by changing themes you find it to be faster.. but please, don't use Windows XP. It is THE most ugly thing I have ever seen in my life.. the blue and green combination is truly disgusting.

yuck.




irmongoose

Okay.... It really isn't that bad. And MS was afraid people would think so, and so Windows has themes. I can make windows XP look like Windows 98, and I can make it look like anything I want. So, yes, it can be kind of ugly, but I can change it to look pretty.

 

[irmongoose]

Re: Re: Re: Another speed increase

Originally posted by scem0


Okay.... It really isn't that bad. And MS was afraid people would think so, and so Windows has themes. I can make windows XP look like Windows 98, and I can make it look like anything I want. So, yes, it can be kind of ugly, but I can change it to look pretty.

Hah.. well, that's your opinion...

Sure, Microsoft has themes.. so what? Apple didn't need themes cause they knew people wouldn't think Aqua is ugly. And even if they thought it's a little too colorful, they have Graphite. Now, people applying themes because Aqua is too CPU consuming is another story. It was not like they hate Aqua itself. They hate Aqua's speed, or lack there of. Hey, I think everybody would use Aqua (or Graphite) if only Apple figured out how to lower the CPU usage.



irmongoose

 

[chmorley]

Originally posted by TimDaddy
Is it my imagination, or did my computer actually start up faster? It also seems that the web pages are rendering faster. Is this possible from that command?

Probably just your imagination. I doubt it can help bootup time, and it definitely can't help pages load faster.

That's the problem with "it seems faster." If you don't actually time it, your brain will often fool you. It would be great if someone would actually do pre- and post-updating benchmarks so we can see if it actually does anything. I would, but I can't, since I did it pre-Jaguar--once an application's pre-bindings are updated, doing it again will do nothing (despite reports to the contrary).

My understanding is not that it is done during bootup, but during installations--at the end when it is "optimizing." Regardless, Apple has stated it is unnecessary, but it certainly won't hurt anything.

Chris

 

[ryme4reson]

Try it out

Okay, I understand that Aqua may be too slow, and by changing themes you find it to be faster.. but please, don't use Windows XP. It is THE most ugly thing I have ever seen in my life.. the blue and green combination is truly disgusting.

If you select the XP theme and use graphite, then there is not green, so the blue doesnt look bad, and it is SOOOO much faster. I have had no slow downs when using the Genie affect, and for once I am inpressed with the speed of the GUI. If you want to try it out, get the theme switcher, then download a theme, and drag into the switcher. Works great, and you can always go back to aqua.

Theme switcher:
http://conundrumsoft.com/Products/
Themes:
http://planeta.terra.com.br/informatica/MacMotiva/themes.html
http://homepage.mac.com/max_08/index_themes.htm

 

[JupiterZen]

Re: Try it out

Originally posted by ryme4reson


If you select the XP theme and use graphite, then there is not green, so the blue doesnt look bad, and it is SOOOO much faster.

I still can't understand how you can bear to look at that ... But lets not argue about taste.

Since Quartz Extreme I have never had to complain about Aqua speeds any longer. It just rocks.

But I must say the Square Theme (no round edges to windows) might come in handy, because the rounded edges are a big concern to my girlfriend. She just doesn't like the looks of them and now I can take that pain away

 

[ryme4reson]

I like this one also

I still can't understand how you can bear to look at that ... But lets not argue about taste.

This is the brushed look, everything is very slick. All of the applications use the current theme, and Office really loioks cool in this theme

 

[JupiterZen]

Re: I like this one also

Originally posted by ryme4reson


This is the brushed look, everything is very slick. All of the applications use the current theme, and Office really loioks cool in this theme

That is certainly a lot better I just can't stand that standard XP look. It's like "My First Sony" and FisherPrice stuff. How old do they think I am?

[sidenote]
But I must admit that the standard XP desktop picture with the grass hill complements that Teletubbie feel extremely good ;-)
[/sidenote]

But are you really experiencing speed increase with the other themes even while Quartz Extreme already speeds up the GUI? Pre-QE Aqua was to slo, but now ... I have nothing to complain, really.

 

[ryme4reson]

Download it for yourself

I would say atleast a 35-55% speed increase, even with my 933 with a 64MB card, if I had say 5 windows that I minimized really quickly it would hickup. That is no longer, when I maximize a window it is instantaneuos. You can always go back to aqua. Durality(theme switcher) works really well.

 

[JupiterZen]

Re: Download it for yourself

Originally posted by ryme4reson
I would say atleast a 35-55% speed increase, even with my 933 with a 64MB card, if I had say 5 windows that I minimized really quickly it would hickup. That is no longer, when I maximize a window it is instantaneuos. You can always go back to aqua. Durality(theme switcher) works really well.

Well, Then I at least must try it to see for myself. You got me interested with those numbers

 

[ryme4reson]

Hurry I want to know if U got the same speed-ups!

 

[chmorley]

fix_prebinding

I was just checking on running processes and noticed that one is called fix_prebinding. I don't remember this one being present in pre-jaguar OS's. Maybe this is what Apple has changed in Jaguar, and why it is not necessary to update prebindings any longer.

By the way, here is reference to this process at Apple's Knowledge Base:

"Optimizing" refers to the execution of a process called "update_prebinding," which allows applications to open faster by precalculating the address information of system data the applications use. This optimization is performed on the Mac OS X startup disk when Apple updates certain System components. Though update_prebinding may be executed manually, it is not necessary to use it at any other time.

Chris

 

[irmongoose]

Re: I like this one also

Originally posted by ryme4reson


This is the brushed look, everything is very slick. All of the applications use the current theme, and Office really loioks cool in this theme

Okay. Now that looks pretty nice. So... I went and downloaded it. It just doesn't work! I tried the version 4 beta, and that doesn't work either.... weird...




irmongoose