Best Ways to Speed up a Mac OS

Practising some of the most simple, yet necessary steps will assure building an environment which is smooth and safe for working on Mac. There is time now when I realize that my Mac mini hard drive is suffocating due to presence of huge data onto it. And, to rescue the drive from a possible damage I need to launch a rescue operation that not only help my drive to stay and live longer but also tone up its performance. I have spent some good time on areas where I can really make improvement that lasts and finally delivers the result which I am looking form.

Currently, the problems which I am facing are -

• Slow Speed and Poor Performance

• System freezing frequently

• Hard drive strange sounds that makes me more concerned

To perform an entire clean up of my Mac, I choose to begin with my -

1. Desktop – The place need not be filled with too many icons making the user go mad looking around for something. Also, it doesn't makes a good look and feel of a system. My desktop is often bulging with too many application icons, games icon, office files, and software shortcuts. To make my drive go fast, I have to delete junk icons from it. It not only makes the appearance much better but also can increase the speed of a Mac system.

2. Trash-Bin – I usually add and remove so many applications, icons and folders. Downloads from the Internet like torrent files, dmg, zip etc are used and then move to trash-bin. This is a part of my daily activity which now needs my attention. Making a tour of the trash-bin folder helped me to see through my eyes what mess I have created over there. A trash-bin folder should timely be cleared; otherwise it is one of the prominent
   

3. Applications – Being a Mac user, I always find myself involved with huge numbers of existing and growing Mac applications. Many of them are of my interest, but some of them simply don't need to be present on my system. And, this is not a case that limits to myself, every Mac owner must have made excess presence of both useful and unwanted applications on its drive. But aiming to achieve a high speed & performance, it's time now to say goodbye to some of those unwanted applications which I choose to uninstall. A good amount of free space can be made available by deleting unsought applications.

4. Widgets – Widgets are cool, in-fact they are awesome. Widgets alone can make a computer user go crazy with its features, look and feel and usability. But what if the widgets alone occupy some good drive space and make the system compromise with its performance. Widgets consumes small amount of memory spaces with some processor power needed for their functioning. To remove or disable any widget, access Widget Manager to do so.

5. Animation – Many of us download these animations just to make our eyes feel better. If disk space, speed of the Mac is a concern then it’s better to deactivate.

6. Login Items - At the time of logging into a Mac, some items may appear automatically which is surely irritating. For more detail, Goto - System Preferences<< Accounts<. Kindly uncheck those which are of no use to you.

7. Some of the applications might be user specific and may not be used by all. These include Universal Access, Blue-tooth, Speech Recognition, Internet sharing. Disable them if not used at all. To do so, simply goto System Preference.

8. Language Files – Every-time, a software is installed, it installs all the languages on its own. Except English, none of the remaining language is of any use to us. Removing the unwanted language files helps make some free space. By using a third-party software, one may choose to delete all the other language files from the Mac OS X, except his own.

9. Dis-enable Dock shadow & Dashboard.

10. Upgrade RAM – Enhance the Mac's performance by upgrading the RAM.

11. Updates – The software updates can help you overcome the issues of bugs and improves the speed as well.

12. Internet Browsers: -

• Clear Internet Settings

• Deleted Internet Caches files

• Deleted logs

• Decrease page load time in Safari

• Delete all browsers history, auto-fills and favicons

13. Disk Utility: - Applications<<. Find out errors in the Mac HDD by selecting Verify Disk Permissions. If disk has developed some errors, then you can repair them too.

14. Speed Up Mac Software – With spending $29 on Speed Up Mac Software is worth, because it takes care of cleansing the entire HDD or selected volumes. The software scans the disk, lists all the unused files and wipe-out unwanted files, caches, logs, System Junks etc. Makes uninstall an application by just 'Drag and Drop' operation, generates preview of Photos, Music and Video files before performing the cleaning of the computer. User can set easy scheduling which will clean-up tasks at a user-specified time.

15. Speed Up Mac software preview: -

An Interface of Speed Up Mac displaying the lists of unwanted Applications

Must have Mac Utilities for OS X

To troubleshoot a Mac, Apple has provided sufficient in-built set of great utilities OS X, which when used upon yield the best solution needed for the proper maintenance of a Macintosh. All you need to do is Go to << Applications << Utilities.

1) Disk Utility

The 'Disk utility' needs no introduction. A Mac geek or newbie’s after a period of time becomes well aware of the importance of this utility and why not, when this feature alone manages the complete hard drive solution.

Why we use Disk utility for?

• Formats Hard Drives

• Mount and Unmount partitions

• Create and burn disk images

• Help to diagnose the drive and partitions

• Also repairs common faults that might have occurred on the disk

2) Network utility

Go to << Applications << Utilities << Network Utility

Got any concern with the network connection or mail server? Then need to jump to the 'Network Utility' in Mac OS X, which is the one-stop solution for all networking troubles. The network utility can Ping up your server alias which is conveyed and transfers to the server and answers back. The Traceroute tool helps you to reduce the several stops that the request of a web-page or mail encounters. Lookup will pull valuable information on a zone file available on websites.

3) Airport Extreme

Being launched on July 21, 1999 from Steve Jobs himself, it is an extremely powerful wireless application for home, academy and small occupation. With Airport Utility one may easily add new or items on your Local Area Network or reconstruct existing equipment.

4) 3^rd Party Utilities

Beside Mac's in-built utilities, there are several other utilities that are worth to be the part of your Mac.

Drive Defrag Software

Defragmenting a Mac HDD is not possible under OS Lion until and unless you have installed a third party software utility. Over a period of time when hard disk becomes fragmented and system takes much longer time to access any particular file or folder. Then it’s time for now to defrag the Mac hard drive before it becomes a serious problem.

Data Recovery Software

Having a data recovery Macintosh software is a prerequisite. Why not prepare ourselves with the ultimate solution for Macintosh data recovery, before a data loss makes ourselves feel regret about not having a solution before.

Speed Up Mac Tool

A new Mac may perform like a rock-star but with time and amount of data accumulated on the disk, it may become slumberous. To speed up Mac, one needs to have a proper speed up software installed which will clean the junk files from the partitions and will create more free space for the accessing operations.

The upper Mac utilities have been a part of my system and I have make full use of it to make my working more sophisticated and less prone to hazards.

FAQs on slow & inactive Mac hard drive

With time and negligence any machine can slow down and Macs are no exceptional. Users often complain about the slow speed, lack of power and performance of their Mac systems. They also compare the current performance of their Macintosh with the time when it was brand new. Macs are extremely powerful and sophisticated systems that do require user's time and attention. If you are working on huge amount of data then timely attention upon the space and performance of the hard disk is required utmost.

Some of the basic questions that I came across in various Mac forums -

Q 1) Facing unbelievable lag and slowness? I'm gaming a lot and using another application but my Mac is just slow?

Q 2) Saving space on Mac OS X?

Q 3) What Is Taking Up All My Disc Space?

Q 4) How to Clean up & Optimize Mac Lion?

These were basic 4 but different question posted by surprised users who were not able to extract the performance out of their Macs. But believe me, all these problems focuses on one particular area and that is the storage device – Mac HDD. Gamming a lot or installing and using applications or widgets is not such a big deal but here the questions arises 'Did you care about the space used, unused or left on the drive?”

Why Mac become slow and languorous?

#1) Check out if the hard drive is filled with identical files, untouched large files, these consumes a lot of disk spaces.

#2) while installing a software, default language preferred is English, however it install almost all the language files which are not useful for us. Getting rid of these files will create some space on drive.

#3) Macs often become slow due to presence of junk and Internet caches files

#4) Unwanted or unused Applications, Widgets, Plug-ins are weaken the Macintosh performance

#5) Unnecessary Back-ground running Mac Extensions, affecting the system's speed

Tips to Optimize your Mac -

• Try to keep your Dock simple with only limited but useful icons.

• Use Disk utility tool to find out the errors generated on volumes.

• With spending few bucks you can own a complete hard drive solution that will analyse the health of the hard drive and will provide appropriate solutions. Being working on huge data, my system requires me to run software like Speed Up Mac which not only maintain the files and folders on my volume but take proper care of the entire HDD.

Learn to Set Up Firewall on Mac Lion and Snow Leopard OS X

Setting up a firewall in Mac Leopard and Lion is as simple as that. Nothing technical, just follow the below simple steps and be protected with the firewall settings.


1. Click Apple Menu<System Preferences icon


2. Move Cursor to Security and click it.


3. See 3 Tabs – General File Vault Firewall, Click Firewall.



4. The first option which you see is (Allow Incoming Connections) selected by default.


5. Select the last option (Set Access for specific services and applications).



6. You see the +- button on the below left corner. Add your files and applications you wish firewall to allow or block.

7. Icon of application added can be seen in the space. Hit Advance option.


8.By default 'Enable Firewall Logging' is selected. Also, select the 'Enable Stealth Mode' and hit OK.



9. The added applications are by default “Allowed Incoming connections”, however if you wish to disallow some of your applications, just click on that application and select “Block incoming connections”.


Many users might not consider installing a firewall for their Macs, but the fact is they must do it before a situation arises where a data loss might have occurred. Data recovery Mac is not a unheard term in such cases but some of the basic protection lies in our own hand. By using the advance features of the Mac Leopard & Lion, we can activate firewall protection for our important files and applications.

Mac World | iWorld – Find the latest Mac data recovery software & utilities`

The countdown for Mac World iWorld expo 2012 has begun and now its only 13 days to go for the ultimate display of Apple's technology. The thought of experiencing the most advanced applications, operating systems ad software thrills me completely.

The list of exhibitors is so large, you can find exactly what you looking for your Macintosh. The Mac World Expo website is being updated with the latest addition of entertainment packages like -

• Get your Geek on T-shirts contest!!

• The ultimate Online Audition Contest

• Interview and live performances using iPads
  

I have been checking out the website of exhibitors which are related to my interest. In this process only, I got to find out that, Stellar Information System Ltd. is launching big surprises in its Mac data recovery and utilities segments.

Among the New Launches, they have -

1. Mac data recovery software it could be version 5. This version focuses more on scanning and recovery features and its developed are too sure about its performance as compared to its earlier versions and other recovery software for Mac in the market. The software is already gained wide popularity amongst the user and a trust is already being made by the Stellar. Being priced at $99 only, it supports Mac HFS, HFS+, HFS Wrapper and FAT file system volumes. Read a recent review on Mac data recovery software - http://geekbeat.tv/stellar-phoenix-mac-data-recovery-review/

2. Drive ToolBox – The Company looks quite confident on its drive toolbox product which they term as their center of attraction. So there must be something very special in the drive toolbox. But to find out one must go to the booth no. - 448. However, I got a glimpse of what special package are they talking about. Stellar Drive toolbox has got 13 powerful modules empower the Mac to manage, maintain, and organize the data in a convenient manner along with scheduling other various tasks.

3. Speed Up Mac – The main task assigned to speed up Macintosh software is to remove all junks files, unused and unwanted files from the volumes to create free space on the hard disk thus reducing the system accessing time.

4. CD DVD Data Recovery – Software focuses on data recovery from optical devices like CD/DVD/BD, HD DVDs. The case of data loss might be due to damage done to the disk physically or incorrectly burned.

The above software can be either purchased or won. Lucky participants get a chance to win Mac data recovery software and other Mac utilities.

For more updates visit - http://www.stellarinfo.com/macworld-expo/index.php

How to reduce, remove virus, suspicious threats on Mac OS X Lion?

Another day, another query for the Mac users. I came across several questions in the Mac related forums, asked by Mac user regarding the threats that may or may not arise in the Mac OS X. A general question being put up by the newbie Mac users or even professionals - Is my Mac safe from viruses, malwares etc.?

First of all let’s highlight a general perception amongst Mac users. 'Macintosh OS X is definitely much safer than its most dominant competitors. It is true a virus can play a havoc in the PCs which may lead to a sudden corruption of files or even complete system.

Thank Goodness to the individual preference file platform that Mac Operating System uses, it is way safer than PCs, which share common registry file. However, this does not mean that Mac OS X is 100% safe either.

Frequent torrent file down-loaders have faced the problem of suspicious files, malwares and even viruses intrusion in their Macs. Remember Tsunami and DevilRobbers – the two notorious malwares that targeted Mac OS X recently. The main reason for intrusion of above malwares was due to downloading of unsafe software, applications files from torrents. Using Mac's App Store application is much safer option, however unlike downloading a free torrent file you may have to pay for the some of the software programs files or any other applications.

As I earlier mentioned a user won’t stop downloading free files, programs games available on the Internet. Somewhere, we do compromise with the safety and security of our files and folders. But using the Mac's in-built security and privacy feature is the smartest move one can play without spending a penny on the antivirus software.

Securing your Mac OS X is as simple as that – This utility is available in Mac OS X 10.7 only

Goto->System Preference>Security & Privacy->General

By enabling this feature the OS X firstly will analyses if the file is safe to be downloaded. If it founds it to be OK it will pass the downloading permissions. However, on account of a suspicious file it won't allow it to download on the system.

The above method is free of cost and easy to implement. And when it comes to installing a third party anti-virus software then there are plenty of good options available like Sophos Free Antivirus for Mac Home Edition. Its latest version supports Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

Dealing with the Memory card corruption

A digital camera memory card corruption is so common that I am sure based on my own experience that most of the users also have faced memory card corruption situation. The sudden corruption of memory card of the digital camera can change anyone's life condition. For example: You were very happy and thinking to show some golden moments period to share with your friends, family or in a group, Unfortunately the memory card got corrupt and all your precious photos got damaged than just think what will be your mood be like because no one can afford loosing the beautiful moments captured at a special destination. Device malfunction like this can sometimes give a huge setback to human users.

Are you aware? Why do memory card goes corrupt?

• Virus and Malware threats

• corruption of the file system

• Mishandling of the camera or its memory card

The above three situations might be aroused due to different reasons but their result remain same i.e. losing the valuable photos and videos stored on the memory card.

“Memory Card Error”

Usually, this message is encountered when memory card corruption took place thus resisting us from accessing the images, videos stored on it. Even, in doing the right way of inserting or ejecting the memory card, one may find the trouble still there due to following reasons.

• Ejecting out the memory card without switching the digital camera off.

• Virus infection corrupted the file system of the memory card and thus the memory card gets corrupt.

• Ignoring the warnings like “Memory card full” and “Low battery” also corrupt the memory card.

• And at times rapid clicking too interrupts the write process and thus, you end up with memory card corruption.

Recovery from a corrupted memory card is almost impossible unless one turns up-to a third party Mac photo recovery software to recover lost, deleted files from corrupted memory sticks. Good Mac photo recovery software is one which recovers from various digital camera brands like Nikon, Canon, Sony, Pentax, Kodak, Minolta, Sigma, Olympus etc.