Quick Start
Many factors can influence a Mac’s speed, including some that may not be obvious. So I encourage you to read and follow all the steps in this book. Although I’ve tried to present tasks in a logical progression for the most part, the order in which you do things is not critical. But please be sure to read Learn What Makes a Mac Fast (or Slow) first to get important background information; follow the steps in Try a Few Quick Fixes regardless of the problems you’re experiencing; and acquaint yourself with the test procedures in Diagnose Common Speed Problems, since I refer to them again and again in the remaining chapters.
Start off on the right foot:
Get a grip on the underlying issues; see Learn What Makes a Mac Fast (or Slow).
Solve several common speed problems in minutes; see Try a Few Quick Fixes.
Learn about test procedures, benchmarking, and monitoring resource usage; see Diagnose Common Speed Problems.
Clean up gremlins on your disk that can have numerous cascading effects; see Fix File and Directory Problems.
Solve general speed problems:
Make sure your CPU isn’t burdened with unnecessary tasks; see Lighten Your CPU Load.
Prevent low-memory situations from slowing down your Mac; see Increase Your Free RAM.
Get data onto and off of your disk faster and more efficiently; see Improve Your Disk Performance.
Speed up specific apps and activities:
Surf faster; see Speed Up Your Browser.
Avoid aggravating delays when using Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird; see Speed Up Your Email.
Test and optimize all the links between your Mac and an outside server; see Speed Up Your Network.
Help your Mac get up and running faster; see Speed Up Booting, Sleeping, and Waking.
Save time with utilities and tricks to increase input efficiency; see Speed Up Mouse and Keyboard Input.
Address hardware issues:
Replace or add hardware components for increased performance; see Upgrade Your Hardware.
Eliminate USB and Thunderbolt bottlenecks; see Speed Up Your Peripherals.