How to view running processes in Mac OS X. OS Track: System monitoring Mac OS X System monitoring in mac os how to call

Apple makes very reliable computers that can last for weeks or months without rebooting. And OS X is pretty smart operating system, intelligently distributing system resources. Usually, the average user has no need to look behind the scenes of this entire “kitchen,” but if you want to keep all your Mac’s system resources under control, you can’t do without special applications. Such applications will be discussed in this article.

iStat Menus

One of the most famous utilities that provides detailed information about all the hardware components of your Mac (looking ahead, I’ll say that this is my favorite). The application allows you to very finely customize the display necessary elements directly on the menu bar, and also arrange the necessary information in a drop-down menu. For example, in my menu bar there are indicators for the processor, memory, battery and network activity, and with a quick glance I can always see how loaded the Mac is at the moment.

Displaying information in a drop-down menu is implemented very conveniently; when you hover over a specific element, detailed consumption graphs are shown (per day, per week, per month). In addition, iStat Menus allows you to adjust fan speed and create profiles for this.

If you want to monitor absolutely all the resources of your Mac, iStat Menus is an ideal option.

gfxCardsStatus

If you are the owner of a Mac with two video cards, I advise you to pay attention to this application. By default, the user cannot choose which graphics card to use, since OS X itself switches between integrated and discrete graphics, depending on the current load. The tiny free utility gfxCardsStatus is designed to correct this shortcoming. Now if you need high performance or, on the contrary, maximum energy savings - just select the appropriate item in the gfxCardsStatus menu. Everything is in your hands!

Disk Doctor

We store a large quantity useful information on the disks of our Macs and over time it becomes more and more. Gradually, various unnecessary and no longer relevant information accumulates, which also takes up disk space- application cache, mail attachments and other large files hidden in the depths file system. Disk Doctor will help you monitor your Mac's disks and clean them up in a timely manner, preventing them from becoming full.

If you're running out of disk space, Disk Doctor will help you win it back.

Temperature Gauge

Nowadays, the development of technology has made it possible to eliminate cases of overheating of Macs, but such situations still occur among unwary users. Luckily, with Temperature Gauge you can monitor fan speed and temperature by reading data from all the sensors on your Mac.

If you frequently push your Mac to the limit or just want to keep your gauge bar handy at all times, use the Temperature Gauge.

Memory Clean

And the last resource that applications tend to “devour” is random access memory or RAM. All applications and games consume memory while running, and the longer they run, the more more memory eaten. Running OS X Mavericks on Macs with less than 4 GB of memory may be uncomfortable and cause delays. Memory Clean will help you identify power-hungry applications and free up memory in one click.

We recommend Memory Clean to all users with a small amount of RAM.

Personal Monitor
Control program
at the computer and staff

Keep an eye on children or employees discreetly.

Record all user actions

personal monitor for mac os x

Free version
for 3 days

Five reasons to use Mipko Personal Monitor on your Apple Mac

1. Be calm about your loved ones

2. Have peace of mind about your Mac

3. Know the truth. The whole truth

4. Stay committed to the Apple philosophy, even in small things

5. Have peace of mind with a reliable assistant

Easy to install

Download Mipko. Launch the program. Click Install. Everything will take a minute or two.

Websites visited

Mipko remembers web pages visited through Apple Safari, Google Chrome And Mozilla Firefox.

Screenshots

Get the full picture. Mipko takes pictures of visited web pages, messages in social networks and regular snapshots of the entire desktop.

Chat entries

Snapshots of VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Facebook messages are saved. Chat messages sent and received via Apple Messages and Adium are also recorded.

Typed text

Mipko monitors keyboard input and records all typed and copied text.

Reports by mail

Indicate your email address and receive regular reports and screenshots.

Search and filters

Search for events by text, date or category to quickly understand everything.

Unnoticed

You can hide Mipko or protect it with a password. The program will not be visible until you press the key combination.

And one more thing

Automatic cleaning of old or large recordings;

Bookmark important events;

Select the programs you want to record;

Recording actions with a computer and programs.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

To run the Mipko 4.0 program, you need the operating system macOS 10.15 Catalina, 10.14 Mojave, 10.13 High Sierra, 10.12 Sierra or 10.11 El Capitan.

So that the necessary information is visible.

Powerful Mac users like to keep their computer's vitals in check. Sometimes you want to see the amount of free RAM or the remaining space on a small SSD drive before your eyes.

Of course, you can look into the standard application System monitoring, but it is much more convenient to install. OS X developers haven't added standard ones, let's look on Mac App Store and on the Internet.

The simplest of the widgets under consideration will be able to tell you about the processor load, free RAM and disk space. Displayed as a separate line network activity in the form of download speed and output at the moment.

Why choose iStat Mini:

• Nice appearance.
• Doesn't take up much space in the control center.

Why you should avoid iStat Mini:

• Few system indicators.
• All drives are combined into one diagram.
• No additional settings and options.
• The author does not update the application.

The most customizable and functional application in the review allows you to display data about all drives, view processor load and monitor RAM. Separate widgets allow you to monitor network connection and battery charge.

Flexibility of settings allows you to change the size of the widget and the location of the panels in it.

You can download a separate add-on on the developer’s website Monity Helper, which will expand the capabilities of the widget. After installing the module, you will be able to monitor data from your Mac’s temperature sensors and the rotation speed of cooling coolers.

Why choose Monity:

• Minimalistic appearance.
• Maximum indicators in the control center.
• Ability to resize widget.

Why you should ditch Monity:

• Pale merging widgets.
• The program is unstable and sometimes the widget settings are lost.
• Price.

The application has the most pleasant appearance among the review participants. All indicators are perfectly readable, which is facilitated by color highlighting. In the settings, you can disable unnecessary blocks so as not to take up unnecessary space in the sidebar.

If the developers offer a colorful appearance, one might think about adding several design themes.

Why choose StatsCenter:

• Nice appearance.
• Ability to customize the widget in the control center.
• Detailed data on RAM usage.
• Complete network statistics.
• Data for all media is separated.

Why you should ditch StatsCenter:

• There is no information about the laptop battery.

One of the presented applications can easily live in the control center and save time when you need to track a certain system indicator. I chose StatsCenter, as the most visual and easy to use.

If you like it too, hurry up, the authors promise to increase the price soon.

Please rate it.

It is difficult to maintain the system in proper form, relying only on native Mac apps OS X. We decided to make a selection of useful and, most importantly, free utilities for all occasions. The article offers a set of different applications, ranging from system cleaners and tweakers to organizers and display managers. Clicking on the utility name leads to home page developer.

Internet update

AppFresh

If you want to keep all your apps, widgets, and settings panels up to date, download AppFresh. AppFresh displays all version information installed programs in one window and allows you to quickly update outdated applications.

System alerts

Growl

Growl is a universal system utility for notifying users. Growl displays a message from any program, for example, about the arrival of an email message, the completion of downloading files/torrents, the name of a song in iTunes, etc. The list of supported programs is huge.

System monitoring

iStat Pro

iStat pro – widget with a large number parameters for monitoring any system processes Mac, including the status of the processor, memory, disks, network, battery, temperature, fans, boot, uptime and many others.

iStat Menus

Eight separate menus in the menu bar to control everything system parameters Maca. iStat Menus allows you to monitor CPU, memory, disks, network, temperature, fans and power, Bluetooth, date and time.

WhatLCD

Easily and naturally WhatLCD will tell you all the information about your monitor connected to your Mac. To obtain detailed information about the display, just install this small utility.

System prevention and cleaning

iBackup

iBackup produces backup files, folders and applications on a schedule. The utility supports backup plugins personal settings: dock, background image, time, firewall, bluetooth and others. In addition, iBackup can back up program settings in Mac OS X.

Preference Cleaner

Settings files may become corrupted and cause unstable work applications. In case of a large number of presets it is easier to delete corrupted files than to look for the source of the problem. PreferenceCleaner is a utility that makes it easy to delete program settings files on Mac OS X.

Onyx

Onyx is a tool for comprehensive cleaning and prevention of Mac OS X. The utility allows you to clean the system and perform flexible Mac setup OS X without terminal. 

 To clear the cache or turn off Spotlight indexing, you must enter an administrator password. The developer provides free version utilities for each Mac OS X system: Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard.

Permissions Reset

Permissions Reset is a simple utility designed to solve the most annoying problem in Mac OS X - permissions problems. Can't save your work files to your documents folder or edit another user's document? Use Permissions Reset!

System tweaks

smcFanControl

smcFanControl allows you to control your Mac's fans using the settings panel in the menu bar. In some cases, the utility can be quite useful.

Secrets

Secrets – settings panel to activate all hidden settings Mac: disable widgets, dock icons bouncing, change screenshot format, enable Quick Look to view folder contents, and more.

Lab Tick

If you are annoyed by the uncontrolled backlight of your MacBook keyboard, then use Lab Tick. The utility allows you to adjust the brightness of the keyboard backlight.

iTool

iTool is free multifunctional tool for comprehensive system prevention. The graphical interface helps you quickly select the desired task. In addition to keeping your system clean, iTool includes some hidden functions Mac OS X

DejaMenu

DejaMenu displays any application's menu items as a context menu. For keyboard geeks, DejaMenu offers hotkeys to speed up access to program settings and eliminate the need to use the mouse.

Screeni

Screeni is a free applet that launches a screensaver instead of a desktop background image. The screensaver takes up a fair share of processor time, so to reduce the load on the system, we recommend using one of the non-resource-intensive screensavers: Computer Name, Flurry, Spectrum or Changing Pictures.

Dock Spaces

Dock Spaces is a small application for setting up multiple docks. The utility allows you to create up to ten different docks and switch between them using the icon in the menu bar. For example, you can create a dock for music or video programs, a dock for system cleaning, a dock for communication, etc.

System interface

Hide Folders

Hide Folders – free application to hide documents or folders. With one click you can hide/show files or folders with all their contents. Simple program, which allows you to protect valuable files from being modified or viewed by other users.

Menu Eclipse

Menu Eclipse is a small utility for changing the transparency of the menu bar. Now you can not be distracted by the top line of the menu and protect this part of the LCD display from burnout!

HotBox

HotBox is a background application for scaling objects by full screen: just click hotkey and select the desired object. The use is simple: by pressing a key, a cross appears to highlight the desired area, after which it is scaled to fill the entire screen. HotBox can be useful for watching videos or flash.

MagiCal

MagiCal is a free menu bar calendar. The utility supports many settings for displaying the date and time and can supplement or replace the built-in system clock. In addition, MagiCal offers a convenient drop-down calendar that can be placed anywhere on the screen.

Screen Shade

ScreenShade is a tool for expanding the brightness control function of the screen (or screens) of Mac OS X. The utility is useful for those who often use the computer in low light conditions.

Organizers

File Actions

A small application for automatic file organization. The utility regularly checks unparsed files and puts them into folders according to specified rules. Installing and configuring File Actions is the easiest and most quick way maintaining order on your Mac.

The Unarchiver

The Unarchiver is an advanced replacement for the built-in archiver in Mac OS X. The utility supports many formats, including Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, Rar, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt and many others.

SyncTwoFolders

SyncTwoFolders is a utility with a self-explanatory name for simple synchronization of two folders. Suitable for multiple accounts to synchronize content system folders(for example, desktop).

XShelf

For quick access to objects, place any files or folders from the Finder on the XShelf. You can drag and drop on XShelf like this: separate files, and a group of objects, as well as text, links, etc. XShelf allows you to get rid of fiddling with Finder windows when moving files and folders.

Permanent eraser

Permanent Eraser provides highly reliable file deletion using the Gutmann method. The utility overwrites the data thirty-five times, distorting the original file name and size when deleting it from the system. After this, it is unlikely that they will ever be restored.

DMG Canvas

DMG Canvas creates disk images (.dmg). The image creation process is a simple drag-and-drop process necessary files into the application window. You can use a file created in graphic editor. The utility allows you to immediately see the disk icon. To create an image, click the Build button.

iDMG

iDMG is a simple application for creating DMG files using drag'n'drop. The utility supports AES128 and AES256 encryption and different file systems.

SnapNDrag

SnapNDrag allows you to take screenshots by clicking on a button and dragging them from the program window to the desired location. For example, to send a picture by mail, you need to drag it from SnapNDrag to mail program. No need to remember key combinations, mess around with temporary files and dialog boxes.

NameChanger

NameChanger is an excellent utility for batch renaming files.

Allowing you to monitor the system status from the menu bar. This, frankly speaking, is a little “geeky” way. Therefore, today we will look at a simpler option that is suitable for switchers, novice users and everyone, everyone, everyone who has previously avoided communication with standard application System monitoring (Activity monitor).

I am sure that each of you at least once, but launched this program with one of those, but the presence of a large amount of varied information in the window can scare anyone away. To prevent this from happening next time, I suggest you understand all the subtleties that allow you to “get the best out of the application.”

Toolbar

By default, System Monitoring is located in the Applications folder > Utilities on your computer. Once launched you will see something like this:

As you probably already understood, the application itself is designed to provide a comprehensive answer to the question “what is going on in my system?” And for this we will need these buttons:

End the process. If you notice that the system has started to work slowly, most likely some application is not behaving entirely correctly. A quick sort of two columns - CPU load and physical memory used - will in most cases help identify the conflicting application. You, of course, can resort to the “Forcibly terminate...” window, which is hidden in . However, not all processes are shown in it, therefore it is easier to close a frozen application from System Monitor.

Check. This button will remain inactive until you highlight a process. But after clicking on it, a special window will appear with three tabs that display detailed information:

• The title of the window contains the name of the process and its identifier (in in this case - 18650);
• the parent process and user that launched this application;
• memory usage;
• various statistics such as the number of threads or CPU time;
• and list open files, with which the process operates.

Button Make a selection helps to collect the most full information about the chosen process, present it from several angles. Honestly, if you are not a Mac programmer, then you won’t be able to understand anything, just like me :)

Dropdown menu and field Filter is of no less value to us, as it allows you to quickly switch between several process display modes or find it by name. The drop-down menu offers the following options:

• "All processes." In this mode will be shown everything in general processes running on the system.
• The menu item “All processes, hierarchical” will display them in a tree, indicating their “parents”.
• "My processes" will only show what was started by the current user.
• I think there is no need to explain what will be presented in the list if the user selects “System processes” or “Processes of other users”.
• With the last values ​​- “Active” and “Inactive processes”, “Processes in windows” - everything seems to be clear too.

And this is what the sample will look like. Each tab and extension runs in a separate process:

Processes and Applications

The most important information located in the middle of the application, just below the toolbar. You probably noticed while testing the operation of filters and buttons that the contents of the list changed all the time. This is all because there are many processes running on the system that start and stop, begin to require more RAM or CPU time, etc.

By default, this list is divided into several columns displaying the process ID (PID), its name, user name, percentage of processor load (%CPU), amount of physical memory, architecture type, and so on. For us, as I said just above, of particular interest are the %CPU and the amount of physical memory, which directly indicate how busy the system is. If you click on any column, the processes will be sorted in descending or ascending order (depending on how many times you click on the title 🙂).

For example, %CPU for most processes should not be very high unless you are performing any resource-intensive operations: during startup, this value may jump to 50-60% and decrease all the way to zero after it is loaded. But if you encode music, then during the process the workload can constantly fluctuate around 80-90% and higher. The situation is similar with physical memory- the less it is occupied, the faster system will be able to work.

The processor type is shown in three values: PowerPC for older Macs, Intel and Intel (), with the first Intel indicating a 32-bit application architecture.

You can turn on or off the display of some columns from the context menu of any column or through the View > Columns menu.

Bottom panel

Below the list of processes you can find no less useful panel with several bookmarks. They show more detailed information on each parameter: values ​​and graphs with their own legend and customizable display type. You can look at a larger graph of processor load through the Window menu, using the key combination ⌘+3, or by double-clicking on the small graph:

In a similar way, you can evaluate the use system memory, network adapter and space on hard drives or USB flash drives (I suspect Firewire devices will also be shown in the list).

Dock icon

One of the advantages of System Monitor is that the application window does not always need to be kept in front of your eyes. In most cases, the user will still not need the most complete and comprehensive information. Therefore, programmers taught the icon to change its appearance depending on the user’s wishes. All we need to do is go to context menu icons and select the option you would like to see. I set it to “CPU Load” for myself, since it has the neatest icon 🙂 Although occasionally you need to change it to network/memory load.

In general, this System Monitoring is not so scary, right? But now you can more successfully deal with system freezes and, thereby, increase computer performance.