Make Mac Faster – This is a complete guide + step-by-step plan

Make Mac faster. This is the complete guide to speeding up your Mac for everyone, regardless of whether you're tech-savvy or not.

Over time, many people notice that their Mac computer becomes slower. This problem often arises from long-term use, where the operating system and hardware are subject to wear and tear. Installing apps, changing settings, and using programs heavily can all contribute to slowing down the Mac.

This often happens due to the build-up of multiple processes running simultaneously, taxing available system resources and reducing system responsiveness. In addition, the hard drive can become full due to the accumulation of unnecessary files and caches, which slows down the reading and writing processes.

As a result, users experience longer boot times, delays in opening apps, and an overall decrease in performance. It is therefore important that you check your Mac every so often, I recommend every six months, for apps, settings and other unnecessary files.

Continuing to optimize your Mac will improve the overall performance of your Mac. In this guide, we'll walk through a step-by-step plan you can take to speed up your Mac by optimizing it specifically to your needs.

This guide was updated in 2024 to comply with the latest information and optimizations in this area.

Make Mac faster – Step-by-step plan

Uninstall unnecessary apps

We'll start by checking out unnecessary apps. Which apps do you no longer use and can you delete? By removing unnecessary apps you immediately free up disk space on your Mac, thus improving performance. Also, uninstalling unnecessary apps helps to clear the settings, and temporary files that these apps use. This also ensures better performance.

1. Click on it Applemenu icon.
2. Click System Settings.
3. Click General.
4. Then click on Storage.

In Storage, click Apps. You will now see a list of all the apps on your Mac. Select the app(s) you want to remove and click the Remove button.

To make it easier to find which apps you don't use often, for example, you can use the sorting in the tabs. For example, you can sort by name, type of apps, when the app was last opened and by size of the app. Sorting these apps makes it easier to judge whether this is an app you want to remove. When you are done, click Done.

Remove startup apps

Now that you've removed unnecessary apps, I recommend checking which apps automatically launch the moment you boot your Mac. These are bootable apps. In particular, these bootable apps can significantly slow down your Mac's startup if you are not going to use these apps.

1. Click on it Applemenu icon.
2. Click System Settings.
3. Click General.
4. Then click on Login.

In the “Open at Login” tab you will see all the apps that open when you start your Mac. Select the app(s) you don't want to open at startup, then click the “-” icon to remove the app from this list.

Disable background apps

When you install an app, this app can add a background item. These are components that perform tasks for a specific app in the background. To give an example, if you install a browser, the background app may be an automatic update process. This means that the app can update itself to new versions without you having to take any action.

If you have many apps installed, some of which you may not always use, these apps may still be consuming computer resources in the background. This is then done by background apps. It is advisable to determine whether the list of background apps requires a process to be active in the background. By disabling these background apps you can prevent processes from running in the background that consume computer resources.

1. Click on it Applemenu icon.
2. Click System Settings.
3. Click General.
4. Then click on Login.

Then disable the parts of apps that you don't want to run in the background.

Delete unnecessary large files

Large files can significantly affect the performance of your Mac. Large files slow down searches because all these files need to be indexed. It is recommended to periodically identify and delete large files.

1. 1. Click on it Applemenu icon.
   2. Click System Settings.
   3. Click General.
   4. Then click on Storage.

Check the storage list to see which items take up the most disk space. It is advisable to start with documents. Double-click on documents to open.

Here you will see a selection of files sorted by size. Identify large files in this list, select the file and click the delete button. You can repeat this for files in the downloads folder, unsupported apps and the file selector.

Use CleanMyMac to Speed ​​Up Your Mac

In this step-by-step plan you have read how you can manually make your Mac faster by removing apps and other unnecessary files. It is recommended to repeat this every six months to keep your Mac in top performance.

The disadvantage of manually deleting everything is that it takes a lot of time. To save time you can use CleanMyMac. This is the app to keep your Mac in top condition and offers even more benefits:

• CleanMyMac can help identify and remove unnecessary files, such as old caches, unused applications, redundant language files, and old email attachments. This can free up a significant amount of storage space.
• It also offers several optimization features to improve system performance, such as managing startup items to speed up boot time, and optimizing RAM.
• CleanMyMac includes a malware removal feature called “Moonlock” that can scan your Mac for malware, adware, and other potentially unwanted programs.
• The program can also help protect your privacy by removing traces of your online and offline activities, such as browser history, cookies, and other temporary files.
• CleanMyMac also offers a menu item that provides real-time information about system status, such as temperature, storage space, RAM usage, and battery status, which can be useful for monitoring the health of your Mac.

Download CleanMyMac of access CleanMyMac and 240+ other Mac apps via Setapp.

I recommend trying CleanMyMac. Currently it has millions of active users worldwide.

I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!