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Gene_Arnold
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Q: TSR Apps

One of the issues that I had with windows was all the TSR apps that needed to get installed. OTB windows seemed to run good enough but once I installed all the needed extras (virus software ect...) it slowed down a lot and took forever to boot. My MBP TSR list is starting to get a little large and I'm concerned that I'll have the same problem now in the Mac world. Any words of wisdom for a newbee?

iPhone 3g / MBP 15in, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Dec 24, 2009 8:43 AM

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Gene_Arnold

Q: TSR Apps

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  • by Ian Bickerstaffe,

    Ian Bickerstaffe Ian Bickerstaffe Dec 24, 2009 8:58 AM in response to Gene_Arnold
    Level 6 (14,235 points)
    Dec 24, 2009 8:58 AM in response to Gene_Arnold
    Hi,

    You refer to anti virus applications in your post - You do not need any anti virus applications on a Mac. You may wish to use one to prevent accidental forwarding of any, possible, virus to a windows using friend.

    Whatever " TSR " stuff you don't need or use - trash it. Job done.

    Regards.

    Ian.

  • by Tom Gewecke,

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Dec 24, 2009 9:06 AM in response to Gene_Arnold
    Level 9 (79,045 points)
    Dec 24, 2009 9:06 AM in response to Gene_Arnold
    My MBP TSR list is starting to get a little large


    Could you give some examples of what apps you are talking about? Perhaps then others can offer advice on whether they are really necessary or whether they are likely to have any performance effect.

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Dec 24, 2009 9:55 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 7 (29,051 points)
    Dec 24, 2009 9:55 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    TSR is old DOS shorthand for Terminate and Stay Resident. It was a big deal because you could only fit so many such programs into the 80K or so TSR area of your 640K. You could increase your high memory area, to a point. It it got too big you wouldn't have enough low memory left. You needed about 540K to have enough to load enough in so that your expanded memory could function. Boy I miss those days!

    But, for the original poster, those days are long over - even on Windows. You don't need any anti-virus software on the Mac. If you have any, it will only cause problems. Speaking of which, are you having any specific problems on your Mac? Memory is really cheap so there is no reason not to max out your RAM. There is no amount of well-behaved software you can install that will overload your Mac. It can handle all of it. If it has problems, there may be one or more programs that aren't well behaved and need to be removed. Quantity is irrelevant, but quality is still important.

  • by Gene_Arnold,

    Gene_Arnold Gene_Arnold Dec 24, 2009 10:02 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 24, 2009 10:02 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Right now I'm using these....

    Growl. This one has quite a few items to it, Hardware/iTunes/Stuff like that
    Adium
    VMWare
    EverNote
    MobileMe Sync
    TimeMachine
    Cinch

    Then the norms like bluetooth, wifi and other system items.

    I'm not running any anti virus stuff. I understand the first post that if I don't need it I can turn it off but are there any issues I should be aware of other then the fact the my machine will be tasked by all these little apps?

  • by Gene_Arnold,

    Gene_Arnold Gene_Arnold Dec 24, 2009 10:04 AM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 24, 2009 10:04 AM in response to etresoft
    Thank you for this. Right now I'm running 4gig of ram. I'd love to bump to 8 but that is not as cheap as you state right now

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Dec 24, 2009 10:12 AM in response to Gene_Arnold
    Level 7 (29,051 points)
    Dec 24, 2009 10:12 AM in response to Gene_Arnold
    4 GB is fine. There are lots of people who try to do things with only 1 GB.

    None of the programs you listed should cause any problems. Are you having trouble? You can always run Activity Monitor, sort by CPU, and see which programs are taking the most CPU percentage. As you will see from the list, there are lots of programs running all the time.