Programs to make Leopard OSX faster?
I was looking around for programs that helped my Mac run a little faster; my friend had mentioned one to me, but I forget the name (I think it had the word "Menu" or something?..). But I was just wondering from your guys' personal experiences what worked best for you. Thanks!
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OS X works a little differently than Windows. In Windows, there are a million different things that can go wrong, so registry cleaners, anti-virus tools, anti-spyware programs, disk defragmenting, etc. will all help speed things up. OS X doesn't have these problems, so there's really nothing to fix.
Having said that, there are some steps you can take that can help speed things up:
1 - Go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items. If you don't use it, remove it (you'll want to keep iTunes helper, keep GrowlHelperApp if you use Growl, etc.).
2 - Under System Preferences, go to Bluetooth menu and turn it off if you don't use it. Do the same for everything in Universal Access (VoiceOver, Zoom, etc.).
3 - Make sure you don't have too many preference panes in the Other section in System Preferences. Having 3 or 4 won't affect your performance much, but if you have a lot of them start removing ones you don't use.
4 - Buy Xslimmer and slim all of your apps. Most OS X applications are "Universal" (meaning they work on both Intel and PPC Macs). This way people who still use PPC Macs aren't left behind. The problem is that OS X has to search for the right type of code to execute before it can open any of your applications. Slimming them with Xslimmer removes the PPC code on an Intel Mac and vice-versa. It also removes languages that you don't use that are built into applications (since most apps include multiple languages for non-English speaking users).
5 - If you use a Macbook/Pro/Air, download Fan Control. This will help cool things down, which keeps things running a little more efficiently (though it does shorten battery life a bit). I have mine set to 2500 RPM base speed, 50.0 lower threshold, 70.0 upper threshold and it works pretty well.
6 - Disable any Widgets you aren't using in Dashboard. Open Dashboard and click the little round symbol with a plus-sign in the bottom-left corner, then click Manage Widgets. Uncheck anything you aren't using. You also might want to delete any of the ones you know you'll never use. You can't delete the widgets that come pre-installed with Leopard from the Dashboard, but you can go to Library/Widgets (or sometimes Users/You/Library/Widgets) and delete them from there.
7 - This is probably the most important one on the list. Make sure you have at least 10 GB free on your hard drive, though more is always better. OS X relies heavily on virtual memory, so when you start running out of disk space, everything slows waaaaayyyy down.
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