CFS88

Q: Since installing El Capitan...

I've noticed an extreme slow-down in saving image files made in Photoshop. What took 30 seconds in 10.6.8 now takes 4 minutes or so. I've timed these differences with a stopwatch.

 

My system is a Mac Pro (early 2009) single-core.

 

Does anyone have any idea(s) as to why that happens, and better yet, if there's anything I can do about it? Actually, when it seems as though it's finished saving, the old color wheel comes up and remains spinning for the next few minutes. Otherwise, everything else (all variables) are the same.

 

Thank you

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Jul 26, 2016 10:09 AM

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Q: Since installing El Capitan...

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  • Helpful answers

  • by lllaass,Solvedanswer

    lllaass lllaass Jul 26, 2016 10:17 AM in response to CFS88
    Level 10 (189,599 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 26, 2016 10:17 AM in response to CFS88

    What 2009 Mac pro has a single core? The base 2009 had one 4-core processor. There was an option for two 4-core processors.

     

    Just what is file size of the files you are saving?

    When saving open Activity Monitor and look at CPU tab. Make sure that under View all processes is checked. What is using CPU?

    Do same with Memory.

     

    Also

    Run this and post the results here so we know more about your configuration. You may have obsolete apps and other things that are causing problems

    http://etrecheck.com/

    EtreCheck

    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6172

  • by CFS88,Helpful

    CFS88 CFS88 Sep 27, 2016 5:06 PM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 27, 2016 5:06 PM in response to lllaass

    I'm really, really sorry about that error in reporting on my system. I believe I meant to say a single quad-core. Is that acceptable? Listen, I don't claim to be expert on all of it, so I hope that's satisfactory for you.

     

    As for file size, they are large, up to 2 to 3 Gb, as most digital paintings are. But that's only when I've not flattened the image. After doing so, size might be 500 Mb. This isn't relevant, since the files I'm trying to open AND save in OS 10.11.5 are exactly the same files I can so easily open and save in OS 10.6. At first, in OS 10.11, the files appear to save quickly, with just a spinning gear for a few seconds. But then, up comes the spinning color wheel for 5 to 10 minutes before the file actually opens or saves.

     

    When I open Activity Monitor while using CS5, there doesn't appear to be anything excessive, not that an amateur like myself could know for sure. I really can't say more than that the green line or stacks of bricks isn't bouncing off the top of the appropriate window. There's very little in red, if that means anything.

     

    Here are the results of the EtreCheck using its default settings. Even I can read "Performance: Below Average:" That comes as no surprise:

     

    EtreCheck version: 3.0.5 (309)

    Report generated 2016-09-27 13:10:47

    Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

    Runtime 5:20

    Performance: Below Average

     

    Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

    Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

     

    Problem: Computer is too slow

    Description:

    Opening and saving files takes longer than they should

     

    Hardware Information:

        Mac Pro (Early 2009)

        [Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

        Mac Pro - model: MacPro4,1

        1 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon CPU: 4-core

        24 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

            DIMM 1

                8 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok

            DIMM 2

                8 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok

            DIMM 3

                8 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok

            DIMM 4

                Empty  

        Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

     

    Video Information:

        NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 - VRAM: 512 MB

            Cinema Display 1680 x 1050

            SyncMaster 1024 x 768 @ 60 Hz

     

    System Software:

        OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 (15F34) - Time since boot: about 5 days

     

    Disk Information:

        HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSC0   ()

     

        WDC WD6400AAKS-41H2B0 disk2 : (640.14 GB) (Rotational)

            EFI (disk2s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

            MAC (disk2s2) / : 437.48 GB (166.38 GB free)

            Recovery HD (disk2s3) <not mounted>  [Recovery]: 650 MB

            BOOTCAMP (disk2s4) /Volumes/BOOTCAMP : 201.79 GB (148.83 GB free)

     

        WDC WD5000AAKS-00V1A0 disk1 : (500.11 GB) (Rotational)

            EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

            disk1s2 (disk1s2) <not mounted> : 65.65 GB

            Boot OSX (disk1s3) <not mounted> : 134 MB

            DATA 1 (Disk 1 - WORKING SPACE) (disk1s4) /Volumes/DATA 1 (Disk 1 - WORKING SPACE) : 433.98 GB (201.41 GB free)

     

        WDC WD10EALS-002BA0 disk0 : (1 TB) (Rotational)

            EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

            disk0s2 (disk0s2) <not mounted> : 65.65 GB

            Boot OSX (disk0s3) <not mounted> : 134 MB

            DATA 2 (IMAGE STORAGE & OTHER) (disk0s4) /Volumes/DATA 2 (IMAGE STORAGE & OTHER) : 934.08 GB (24.61 GB free)

     

        WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 disk3 : (3 TB) (Rotational)

            EFI (disk3s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

            FAT (disk3s2) /Volumes/FAT : 125.02 GB (124.98 GB free)

            IMAGE STORAGE 4th BAY (disk3s3) /Volumes/IMAGE STORAGE 4th BAY : 2.88 TB (697.33 GB free)

     

    USB Information:

        Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

            Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

        Tablet PTK-640

        Realtek 802.11n NIC

        APC Back-UPS ES 725 FW:802.n5.D USB FW:n5

        Western Digital My Passport 0820 2 TB

            EFI (disk5s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

            My Passport External Storage (disk5s2) /Volumes/My Passport External Storage : 2.00 TB (876.09 GB free)

        Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub

            Mitsumi Electric Apple Optical USB Mouse

            Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard

        X-Rite, Inc. ColorMunki Display

     

    Firewire Information:

        Iomega HDD unknown_device 800mbit - 800mbit max

            IOMEGA HFS (disk6s1) /Volumes/IOMEGA HFS : 799.53 GB (1.54 GB free)

            IOMEGA NTFS (disk6s2) /Volumes/IOMEGA NTFS : 200.68 GB (135.87 GB free)

     

    Configuration files:

        /etc/sudoers, File size 1242 but expected 2299

        /etc/hosts - Count: 15

     

    Gatekeeper:

        Mac App Store and identified developers

     

    Kernel Extensions:

            /Library/Extensions

        [not loaded]    com.FTDI.driver.D2XXHelper (1.0 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.sonnettech.com.Sonnet-USB3-Combined-E-ChargingSupport (1.0.1 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

     

            /System/Library/Extensions

        [loaded]    com.realtek.driver.RtWlanU (1830.2.b10 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.realtek.driver.RtWlanU1827 (1827.4.b19 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.wacom.kext.wacomtablet (Wacom Tablet 6.3.15-3 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.wdc.driver.1394HP (1.0.9 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.wdc.driver.USBHP (1.0.11 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

     

    System Launch Agents:

        [not loaded]    8 Apple tasks

        [loaded]    158 Apple tasks

        [running]    58 Apple tasks

        [killed]    14 Apple tasks

        14 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

     

    System Launch Daemons:

        [not loaded]    47 Apple tasks

        [loaded]    155 Apple tasks

        [running]    79 Apple tasks

        [killed]    9 Apple tasks

        9 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

     

    Launch Agents:

        [running]    Wlan.Software.plist (2015-10-21) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2015-11-13) [Support]

        [failed]    com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a2 3d420d.plist (2016-07-11) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist (2013-10-05) [Support]

        [running]    com.epson.epw.agent.plist (2007-09-18) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-07-11) [Support]

        [running]    com.wacom.wacomtablet.plist (2015-12-16) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.xrite.device.softwareupdate.plist (2013-10-22) [Support]

     

    Launch Daemons:

        [loaded]    com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (2016-07-11) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (2016-07-11) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist (2010-05-29) [Support]

        [running]    com.adobe.agsservice.plist (2016-08-18) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.bombich.ccc.plist (2012-09-17) [Support]

        [running]    com.easeus.dataprotectbackup.plist (2016-09-22) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.google.keystone.daemon.plist (2016-09-03) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Agent.plist (2016-09-22) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.prosofteng.DriveGenius.locum.plist (2015-11-23) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.wacom.displayhelper.plist (2015-12-16)

        [running]    com.wdc.SmartwareDriveService.plist (2013-11-11) [Support]

        [running]    com.wdc.WDSmartWareService.plist (2013-11-11) [Support]

        [running]    com.xrite.device.xrdd.plist (2013-10-22) [Support]

     

    User Launch Agents:

        [loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (2010-05-29) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Scheduler.plist (2016-09-22)

     

    User Login Items:

        GrowlHelperApp    Application  (/Library/PreferencePanes/Growl.prefPane/Contents/Resources/GrowlHelperApp.app)

        EEventManager    Application  (/Applications/Epson Software/Event Manager.app/Contents/Resources/Assistants/Event Manager/EEventManager.app)

        Stickies    Application  (/Applications/Stickies.app)

        CleanMyMac 3 Menu    Application  (/Applications/CleanMyMac 3.app/Contents/MacOS/CleanMyMac 3 Menu.app)

        ColorMunki Display    Application  (/Applications/ColorMunki Display.app)

        DiskWarriorDaemonStarter    Application  (/Applications/DiskWarrior.app/Contents/Helpers/DiskWarriorStarter.app)

        DRWTray    Application  (/Applications/EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.app/Contents/MacOS/DRWTray.app)

        EEventManager    Application  (/Applications/Epson Software/Event Manager.app/Contents/Resources/Assistants/Event Manager/EEventManager.app)

     

    Internet Plug-ins:

        Google Earth Web Plug-in: 6.1 (2016-04-10) [Support]

        Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-06-23)

        WacomTabletPlugin: WacomTabletPlugin 2.1.0.6 - SDK 10.9 (2015-12-16) [Support]

        AdobeAAMDetect: AdobeAAMDetect 1.0.0.0 - SDK 10.6 (2015-11-13) [Support]

        AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 15.017.20053 - SDK 10.11 (2016-08-17) [Support]

        LogMeIn: 1.0.990 - SDK 10.7 (2014-10-08) [Support]

        Silverlight: 5.1.41212.0 - SDK 10.6 (2016-04-10) [Support]

        QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-06-23)

        LogMeInSafari32: 1.0.990 - SDK 10.7 (2014-10-08) [Support]

        PepperFlashPlayer: 23.0.0.162 - SDK 10.9 (2016-09-13) [Support]

        iPhotoPhotocast: 7.0 (2010-05-27)

        AdobePDFViewer: 15.017.20053 - SDK 10.11 (2016-08-17) [Support]

        JavaAppletPlugin: 15.0.1 - SDK 10.7 (2012-07-06) Check version

     

    User internet Plug-ins:

        Unity Web Player: UnityPlayer version 2.6.1f3 (2010-07-24) [Support]

     

    Safari Extensions:

        Awesome Screenshot - Diigo - http://www.diigo.com/ (2012-01-17)

        Ka-Block! - David Graham & Josh Peek - http://kablock.com (2016-09-05)

        TinEye - TinEye - https://tineye.com (2015-10-21)

        Print Plus - slicefactory (2013-05-18)

        Duplicate Tab Button - Thiemo Gamma - http://thiemo.ch/ (2013-05-18)

        Clean Links for Google - Dennis Umetzu - http://www.umetzu.com (2016-02-19)

        Add To Amazon Wish List - Amazon.com - https://www.amazon.com/wishlist?ref=cm_wl_saf_ext (2013-01-18)

        Ultimate Status Bar - Karl Dearden - http://ultimatestatusbar.com/ (2015-10-15)

        My eBay Manager - eBay Inc (2015-10-15)

        WOT - WOT Services Ltd - http://www.mywot.com/ (2016-04-22)

        Dictionary - slicefactory - http://www.slicefactory.com (2012-01-17)

        Asym - Asymmetrica Labs - http://asym.co/ (2016-08-19)

        ResizeMe - Aaron Holland - http://aaronholla.webs.com (2015-10-15)

        Translate - SideTree.com - Apps for Mac and Web - http://SideTree.com/extensions.html#Translate (2015-10-15)

        Awesome Screenshot - Diigo - http://www.diigo.com/ (2016-02-19)

     

    3rd Party Preference Panes:

        Growl (2016-04-10) [Support]

        WacomTablet (2016-06-03) [Support]

     

    Time Machine:

        Skip System Files: NO

        Auto backup: NO - Auto backup turned off

        Volumes being backed up:

            MAC: Disk size: 437.48 GB Disk used: 271.10 GB

        Destinations:

            STORAGE 2 [Local]

            Total size: 0 B

            Total number of backups: 0

            Oldest backup: -

            Last backup: -

            Size of backup disk: Too small

                Backup size 0 B < (Disk used 271.10 GB X 3)

     

    Top Processes by CPU:

             3%    WacomTabletDriver

             3%    kernel_task

             3%    WindowServer

             1%    fontd

             1%    Adobe Photoshop CS5

     

    Top Processes by Memory:

        16.32 GB    Adobe Photoshop CS5

        1.34 GB    kernel_task

        492 MB    softwareupdated

        295 MB    Google Chrome Helper(2)

        172 MB    mds_stores

     

    Virtual Memory Information:

        562 MB    Free RAM

        23.00 GB    Used RAM (3.61 GB Cached)

        8.77 GB    Swap Used

     

    Diagnostics Information:

        Sep 26, 2016, 03:16:11 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Adobe Photoshop CS5_2016-09-26-151611_[redacted].cpu_resource.diag [Details]

            /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS5/Adobe Photoshop CS5.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Photoshop CS5

        Sep 24, 2016, 06:57:40 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/softwareupdated_2016-09-24-185740_[redacted].cr ash

            /System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/Resources/softwareupdated

        Sep 19, 2016, 04:34:46 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Kernel_2016-09-19-163446_[redacted].panic [Details]

     

     

     

     

    Thank you for your time and courtesy.

  • by BobHarris,Helpful

    BobHarris BobHarris Sep 27, 2016 5:06 PM in response to CFS88
    Level 6 (19,609 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 5:06 PM in response to CFS88

        [loaded]    com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Agent.plist (2016-09-22) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Scheduler.plist (2016-09-22)

        CleanMyMac 3 Menu    Application  (/Applications/CleanMyMac 3.app/Contents/MacOS/CleanMyMac 3 Menu.app)

    Mac cleaners, anti-virus, memory cleaners are not really recommended.  They have all seem to be at the root of many performance issues reported in the forums (anti-virus is also common kernel panic initiator).

     

            DIMM 3

                8 GB DDR3 ECC 1066 MHz ok

            DIMM 4

                Empty  

    It would be nice to balance out DIMM slots 3 & 4 with matching RAM so that you get memory interleaving.  This is not the cause of your issues, but it does improve CPU performance by a percent or 2.

     

        LogMeIn: 1.0.990 - SDK 10.7 (2014-10-08) [Support]

        LogMeInSafari32: 1.0.990 - SDK 10.7 (2014-10-08) [Support]

    Looks like you may have some residual LogMeIn browser extensions.  Unless you are paying for a LogMeIn service, chances are these can be removed.

     

        16.32 GB    Adobe Photoshop CS5

        8.77 GB    Swap Used

    Photoship is most likely your performance cause, as it is sucking most of your RAM.  So maybe it would be a good idea to add that 4th 8GB DIMM and bring your Mac up to 32GB.

     

    Everymac.com says some 3rd party RAM vendors have figured out how to get 48GB or RAM into your model Mac Pro.  This may be pushing the envelope, so seem my SSD suggestion below.

    <http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/specs/mac-pro-quad-core-2.66-early -2009-nehalem-specs.html>

     

    I'm sure you need Photoshop, as few people pay for it and have it running, if they do not use it.

     

    But at the moment it is forcing your Mac to use swap files as it wants lots and lots of RAM.

     

    If you can quit any apps you do not need while using Photoshop that would help free up RAM for Photoshop.  Web browsers with lots of tabs open, especially Chrome can compete for the RAM Photoshop wants/needs.

     

    You have a lot of 3rd party Launch Agents and Daemons running.  They take up RAM.  If you do not need them for your work, I suggest you remove them.

     

    You might consider replacing your rotational boot disk with an SSD.  This would improve the snappiness of your Mac.  And any swapping that still needs to be done would happen much faster than with your current rotational boot disk.  If Photoshop has the ability to specify where it keeps its Scratch/temp files, you can point them at the SSD and that would speed up Photoshop as well.

  • by CFS88,

    CFS88 CFS88 Sep 27, 2016 5:05 PM in response to BobHarris
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 27, 2016 5:05 PM in response to BobHarris

    Thanks for that, and I suspect you're right about the third-party stuff, if only I knew how it got there and which to remove. I don't know. I suspect this because I didn't have so many when my OS was 10.6. In that OS I had the same amount of RAM and CleanMyMac, as well as Logmein, which, yes, I do pay for and which is critical to my job as I telecommute.

     

    I always close all other apps when using Photoshop and certainly am not online at the same time, unless temporarily to grab some stock photo. But then I close down the browser as soon as I'm finished. Would it be possible for you to indicate which 3rd party Launch Agents and/or Daemons I could remove? Before I wreak havoc by guessing at which ones? Or how do I distinguish between those not necessary and those that are necessary?

     

    I will consider more RAM, though as I said, what I have worked well in Snow Leopard, and according to users of Photoshop 24 GB should be more than adequate. But indeed, it's being used up by other activities, as I suspected. (That's a great little app you pointed me to, even if I don't understand much of it. Thanks for that.)

     

    I will consider as well an SSD, at least for the first bay. Yes, it is my understanding--based on what I've read--that they are far superior.

     

    Thank you again for your assistance, Bob.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Sep 27, 2016 5:20 PM in response to CFS88
    Level 9 (72,629 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 27, 2016 5:20 PM in response to CFS88

    CleanMyMac 3 Uninstall

     

    After un-installing, use this program to make sure you got all the pieces.

    EasyFind – Spotlight Replacement

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Sep 27, 2016 5:31 PM in response to CFS88
    Level 6 (19,609 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 5:31 PM in response to CFS88

    As for RAM usage, each new upgrade after Snow Leopard wanted more and more RAM.  Some of that was to aid laptops in saving power, by trying to avoid accessing the disk as much as possible as that consumes a lot more power, thus the OS tries to use more RAM for caching disk data as much as possible.  But this also consumes more RAM.

     

    I don't really know what you need or do not need in the launch agent/daemon space.  Some of them seem to relate to devices you have, such as a graphics tablet and an 802.11n device.

     

    Some guesses

        [not loaded]    com.wdc.driver.1394HP (1.0.9 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.wdc.driver.USBHP (1.0.11 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

        [running]    com.wdc.SmartwareDriveService.plist (2013-11-11) [Support]

        [running]    com.wdc.WDSmartWareService.plist (2013-11-11) [Support]

    You most likely do not need Western Digital software to access disks.  UNLESS there is some magical WD features in their drives that you depend on.

     

        [not loaded]    com.FTDI.driver.D2XXHelper (1.0 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

        [not loaded]    com.sonnettech.com.Sonnet-USB3-Combined-E-ChargingSupport (1.0.1 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-09-03) [Support]

    I am unsure what these 2 drivers/kernel extensions are doing.  They are not loaded at the moment, but kernel extensions can be dynamically loaded when needed, so they could come into play later when you use something that needs them.  Again, only you know what software you are using.

     

        [loaded]    com.bombich.ccc.plist (2012-09-17) [Support]

        [running]    com.easeus.dataprotectbackup.plist (2016-09-22) [Support]

        [loaded]    com.prosofteng.DriveGenius.locum.plist (2015-11-23) [Support]

        DiskWarriorDaemonStarter    Application  (/Applications/DiskWarrior.app/Contents/Helpers/DiskWarriorStarter.app)

        DRWTray    Application  (/Applications/EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.app/Contents/MacOS/DRWTray.app)

    These all seem to be related to storage.  Bombich CCC is Carbon Copy Cloner (a utility I use myself).

     

    Not sure what dataprotectbackup is, but it sounds like a backup utility.

     

    DiskWarrior and DriveGenius are utilities for checking and monitoring disks.

     

    DRWTray appears to be some kind of data recovery related app.

     

    If you do not use some of them anymore, then consider removing them.

     

    I am all for backups, and using different backup utilities so do not stop using the backups just because they might use some RAM.  It is RAM well spent.

     

    You might consider dropping  DriveGenius & DiskWarrior except running them on demand.  Continuous running might be draining some performance (guessing, not stating any known facts).

     

    I'm assuming the ones that sound like graphics related or Adobe products are needed for your work.  But you should review the names and see if you remember using them in the past, and have stopped using them now.

  • by CFS88,

    CFS88 CFS88 Sep 28, 2016 7:57 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 28, 2016 7:57 PM in response to Eric Root

    Thanks very much for that. I've yet to uninstall. I'd really like for the newer OS to work and so have tried to work with it. See my other response for more details.

  • by CFS88,

    CFS88 CFS88 Sep 28, 2016 8:22 PM in response to BobHarris
    Level 1 (16 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 28, 2016 8:22 PM in response to BobHarris

    Sorry, I'd not read all of your reply when I responded. What I DID discover in Activity Monitor was something called Adobe CS5 Manager, or something to that effect. I should have written it down. What's interesting is that it was listed about 20 times in AM. Why, i have no idea. What I did was attempt to exit all of them but for one. After highlighting and clicking on Quit, my computer restarted. When it did, it reopened Photoshop and Activity Monitor, now showing only one incident of what were 20 incidents. (I've been working in Photoshop all day, and don't know what that might have had to do with all those same Activities. 20 struck me as just slightly excessive?) I blame Adobe too for a lot of this stuff.

     

    You said it, about Apple trying to help out laptop (what's that?) users, evidently at the expense of desktop users. Be nice if Apple were to issue a warning. But then there's the browser problem: Update or eventually not be able to access the internet using any browser, including Google. When in OS 10.6 I was getting more and more messages that my browsers were out of date. That's when I "upgraded," rather, "downgraded," based on my experience.

     

    As for CPU usage, I can see only 97% idle with CS5 open, but yes, memory usage appears to be excessive. Interesting that, that was not the case in OS 10.6. I should note that I have some difficulty reading actual RAM in use. AND, OS 10.11 includes what seems to me a much more simple-minded version of Activity Monitor than previously. Same goes for Disk Utility.

     

    Anyway, tomorrow I'll see how Photoshop works without 20 instances of some kind of "Manager" open, Today, during a long session, it behaved as previously, taking ridiculous amounts of time just to save or apply a filter--far slower than in OS 10.6. I keep trying to make it work.

     

    As for something like CleanMyMac, I did pay for it, and it does do a very good job of uninstalling. So I'm not sure about shutting that down, though, as with Drive Genius, you're quite right, I think: Why have either one resident? No need for that and I will turn off--if I can--residency.

     

    Thanks again very much for your help. I should know more tomorrow. Well, if I get time to work on my painting. I've got your list here, which should be very helpful.