Most of these tips apply to Intel-based Macs running Tiger, but we specifically address G3, G4, and G5 PowerPC Macs, since Intel Mac users really should be using something newer than Tiger by now (we love OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the last version before OS X became heavily influenced by iOS). It was written toward the end of the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger era and has been updated since its first publication. Coreldraw can do all other things except printing a hardcopy.Publisher’s note: This article, originally written by Ed Eubanks Jr and published on 2007.03.12, has been the most popular article in the history of Low End Mac with well over 2 million hits. Perhaps due to updating to the more recent version of the Mac OS X ver 10.4.11), it suddently cannot print any of my files. Twenty-four days after the rest of the industry mobilized to patch a serious flaw in the domain name system (DNS) protocol that’s core to the functioning of the Internet, Apple has at long last released Security Update 2008-005, which includes its fix for the regular and server flavors of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard.I had this CorelDraw 11 for Mac working in my Mac Mini (Intel Duo Core) for awhile untile recently.
Quicken 10.4.11 Upgrade The SafariThe latest stable version of FileZilla Client is 3.55.1. If you find Ed’s articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.Download FileZilla Client for Mac OS X. Is my computer too old to get at least a safari 5 But, some programs I want to run say I need a later version of safari. Under the Apple heading and upgrades it says there are no upgrades available. How can I upgrade the safari on my computer.Clean Out Startup ItemsSome applications automatically (or when asked) set themselves as a Login Item, which causes them to open at every restart or login. These are tips for getting the most out of the Mac you currently have without investing in hardware upgrades. They mostly have to do with reducing memory use by limiting the number of active processes and freeing up drive space, since a too full drive (especially past the 90% mark) can slow down your Mac. Here are a few tips I’ve found for restoring my Macs to full speed without spending a penny.Publisher’s note: None of these tips will improve your Mac’s performance as much as more system memory (RAM), a faster hard drive, or a CPU upgrade, which isn’t always possible. This alone will bog down any Mac.At other times, I realize that it’s been weeks since I restarted the computer, and a simple restart will solve a lot of these woes.When those don’t speed things up, I’ve found a number of things I can do to encourage my Macs back to their youthful snappiness. There are many potential reasons why: I tend to run 8 to 10 applications all the time – and sometimes push 15 or more.Turn Off Universal Access, Bluetooth, Speech Recognition, and Internet Sharing if You Don’t Use ThemWhile System Preferences is open, take a look at a few other things. However, be sure that you know what you’re removing otherwise you may kill some critical function for the next time you restart. You may be surprised at how many there are.To remove them, simply select the item by clicking on its name and then hit the “minus” button at the bottom of the list.If you’re using a PowerBook or iBook, this may also improve battery life. This will save you some valuable RAM and processor resources. If you don’t use these features, verify that they are turned off. Some, however, may not be useful to you, such as Universal Access (which offers help for visually and hearing impaired users) or Bluetooth (which allows certain devices to be used wirelessly). Teamviewer run only link for macClean Out Unnecessary CodeYour Mac is either running a PowerPC or Intel processor. By making sure you’re running the latest version, you can be confident you’re not using Rosetta in vain (a utility like the App Update widget will help with this). Rosetta is surprisingly efficient, but don’t use it if you don’t have to! There may be a patch for your favorite application that will upgrade it to a “universal build”. Check Out What ‘Build’ Your Software IsIf you’re running an Intel Mac, some of your software may be running under the Rosetta PowerPC translator, which allows software programs built for a PowerPC processor to run on an Intel Mac. How many items are down there? Do you know what they do? Do you use what they do?If there is a Preference Pane that you don’t use or that you use only occasionally, disable it (either turn it “off” within the Preference Pane itself or remove it from the folder “~/Library/PreferencePanes”). ![]() Even though Apple has largely fixed cooling issue in MacBooks, I use a utility called Fan Control on mine, which allows me to change the threshold for when my MacBook’s fan turns on and off. Cool OffThe new MacBooks got a bad rap at first for running very hot the truth is, every Mac will run more efficiently with a cooler processor. And even if you are, you can strip out the other ones you aren’t using and gain more efficiency and drive space using a utility like Monolingual (version 1.3.9 is the last version to support OS X 10.4 Tiger).By the way, the latest version of Monolingual will also strip out unnecessary chip architectures from your system – but not your applications – so it also performs a function similar to XSlimmer, yet different. But chances are you aren’t using the Catalan, Farsi, or Klingon language localizations on your Mac. Get Rid of Languages and Translations You Won’t UseApple is very considerate in providing localizations for many, many languages. Otherwise all the programs you’ve slimmed for PowerPC will be running under Rosetta on your Intel Mac – unless you take the time to do a fresh installation.We’ve heard horror stories of early versions of XSlimmer eviscerating Rosetta, so if you use it on an Intel Mac, be sure you don’t strip the System frameworks. Do you really need that Ski Conditions widget or neeed to have the Clock widget running? If not, disable them to conserve RAM and processor use. This includes some that came with Tiger.It takes RAM and processor power to keep these widgets running, even when the Dashboard is hidden, so a judicious evaluation of what widgets you do use can boost computing efficiency nicely. There are hundreds of useful widgets available, most for free – but there are many that you won’t use, even if they are very helpful to others. Evaluate Your WidgetsIf you’re using Mac OS X 10.4.x Tiger, you have probably played around with the Dashboard. Modern desktops can also run hot and thus will benefit from fan control software as well. Clean Off Your Hard DriveIt doesn’t matter how large your hard drive is – eventually it will begin to fill up. Check it occasionally to see if there are any red flags – or keep it running for a few days (with one of the useful Dock icons or floating windows enabled) to keep an eye on when things are spiking. Activity Monitor will tell you about CPU usage, RAM requirements, virtual memory usage, and whether a given application is a PowerPC or Intel (Universal) build. How will you know about them? By using Apple’s Activity Monitor, which comes with OS X. Keep an Eye on Activity MonitorThere may be other things hogging your processor’s attention or sucking up RAM. There are lots of ways to clean it off, but sometimes a little more free space is all you need to be a peak performance again. If your Mac is starting to feel sluggish, it may be because your drive is too full. (One colleague couldn’t figure out why her drive was so full – until she realized that she hadn’t emptied her Trash in almost four years!)You may not realize that Mac OS X (and the Classic Mac OS, too) uses the free space on your hard drive as “virtual memory”, and it depends heavily on that virtual memory to run efficiently. I tend to run the whole battery of tools – both the maintenance and the cleaning options in OnyX – at the same time, but you may prefer to set them to run as scheduled routines in a certain order.By the way, check out fellow Low End Mac writer Charles W Moore’s words about the value of these routines in his recent article on Applelinks, Yes, Running System Maintenance Routines Really Can Help. There are separate versions for each edition of OS X from 10.2 through 10.8.)These utilities offer a variety of “jobs” and “repairs” to the system, and while some are skeptical about how much this is necessary, my experience has been that they do bring a good level of optimization back to my Macs. If you choose OnyX, be sure to download version 1.8.6 for Tiger. (There are several, many of them free I’ve found Cocktail and TinkerTool to be other good and popular options.
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