- Every time MacOS starts up, various applications and tools are loaded into memory.
- These programs try to make your life easier every day, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
- How to see active applications and set which ones should start with MacOS?
You probably know that in Windows we can add or remove an app from the system startup. But, considering that it is something that is not usually paid attention to in MacOS, We believe that you should know what applications start with your Mac, what are the programs that condition your CPU and RAM memory.
The thing is, every time MacOS starts up, various applications and tools are loaded into memory. Accompanying the operating system, these programs they try to make your life easier. Is not always that way.
Why is it a bad idea not to review these apps?
Beyond the advantages that an app starts with the operating system can bring, on somewhat old computers this can be a problem. In the end, it is possible that you do not need all the applications, which is why you should, very soon, look at which ones are active from the moment you turn on your device, portable or not.
Simply put, having too many programs starting with MacOS can be a drag on your system. We could say, then, that you should be selective about the apps that start with MacOS.
The good news is that you can control what those apps are thanks to Apple’s own tools. You don’t have to install third-party software or anything like that, just take advantage of several of the instruments.
How to see the active applications at that moment?
An easy way to find out what programs start with MacOS is to actually start it and then check what applications are running. Take a quick look at the menu. You’ll get important data and information about apps configured to run alongside MacOS. You must access them from Activity Monitor. Open Spotlight and then search for Activity Monitor and launch it.
You will see that there are certain tabs at the top, dedicated to CPU, RAM, Disk, Network, etc. You will notice that each one of them shows which are the processes that consume resources of the components.
Inspect the app for more details about its activity
If you need or want to find out more about a specific app because you don’t know what it is, you could find out in seconds. Some processes may not be so obvious; you will need to know what they do specifically.
To dig deeper, click on them and then on the Inspect button on the Toolbar, which you can tell because it’s a little “i” with a circle. A dialog will appear explaining what the main process is, how much CPU and how much RAM they are consuming, among other information that could help you.
Set which apps start or should start automatically on your Mac
The direct way to prevent an app from starting with macOS is to disable it in MacOS Settings.
Taking the example of an application like Dropbox, which is one of the most common, so you can disable it:
- Click on the Dropbox icon in the menu bar
- Click on your profile picture and Preferences
- Uncheck Launch Dropbox at system startup in the General tab
There’s no problem with starting Dropbox manually later, so you don’t lose anything.
On the other hand, various applications have their own autostart settings and you will have to deal with it. As long as the program in question doesn’t offer a technique to disable autostart in its own Settings, you can also disable it from the MacOS operating system’s Settings panel.
Check if you can disable these programs from Settings, General, Login Items. You should see a list of apps under Open at login. Click on “-” to disable that app. Besides, you can set it to run in the background so it won’t consume so many resources.
Have you seen which applications start with your Mac? Have you disabled any so that it stops consuming resources?
