You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Mid 2010 iMac 27" running slow

My iMac 27" mid 2010 is slow to load apps and takes forever when creating PSD files in Photos Elements and is slow to save files in Word and Excel among others.

Can I submit an Etrecheck report please?

Thanks in advance



iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Nov 9, 2020 9:30 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 9, 2020 1:02 PM

There is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or security apps on your Mac.  This user tip describes what you need to know and do to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community   


That being said you've got 3 anti-virus apps installed,  AVG, Trusteer and ESET. Uninstall each according to the developer's instructions.


How do I uninstall or reinstall ESET Cyber Security

Uninstalling AVG AntiVirus from Mac

Remove Trusteer Rapport instruction - Mac application


You can check to see if you've removed all of the supporting files by downloading and running Find Any File to search for any files with the application's name  and the developer's name in the file name.  For the above software you'd do the following search(es): 


1 - Name contains eset

2 - Name contains avg.Antivirus

3 - Name contains trusteer.rapport


Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion.


FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.  



13 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 9, 2020 1:02 PM in response to jhunterphoto

There is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or security apps on your Mac.  This user tip describes what you need to know and do to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community   


That being said you've got 3 anti-virus apps installed,  AVG, Trusteer and ESET. Uninstall each according to the developer's instructions.


How do I uninstall or reinstall ESET Cyber Security

Uninstalling AVG AntiVirus from Mac

Remove Trusteer Rapport instruction - Mac application


You can check to see if you've removed all of the supporting files by downloading and running Find Any File to search for any files with the application's name  and the developer's name in the file name.  For the above software you'd do the following search(es): 


1 - Name contains eset

2 - Name contains avg.Antivirus

3 - Name contains trusteer.rapport


Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion.


FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.  



Nov 10, 2020 10:59 AM in response to jhunterphoto

jhunterphoto wrote:

some won't move to Trash however

Boot into Safe Mode (How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support) by booting with the Shift key held down and try removing those files from there.  Then reboot normally.


NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files



Nov 9, 2020 5:18 PM in response to jhunterphoto

Yes, remove any 3rd-party anti-Virus application, and anything else that "cleans" your system. There is zero need for those apps, and my do more damage than good. I would not trust any of them to do what they claim.


Down the road, if you have the time and money, consider removing your iMac's internal, mechanical hard drive and use a SSD drive instead. They are cheap now, and it would drastically improve the performance of your iMac. It would require you to get into the internals of your iMac. I've done it in about 90 minutes.


Also... considering how contaminated your system is, you could re-install MacOS to really flush out all that corruption.

Mid 2010 iMac 27" running slow

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.