Hi, I want to downgrade from OSX LEOPARD to OSX TIGER but I have a few questions regarding this. My iMac is originally from 2007 it came preloaded with tiger. I have original install tiger discs version 10.4.10. Is it safe to downgrade or not please help

Don't take this wrong but why do you want to go back to Tiger? I have the same machine running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and it runs beautifully. What advantages would you get from Tiger? As to virus protection you would be on your own as Apple typically only covers the current and most recent previous OS in security updates (an exception was Leopard trojan updat recently).

Seriously... you should be considering Snow Leopard, if not Lion. Upgrade its memory to the maximum 6 GB and you will have a rock solid machine.

Downgrading from any OS prior to the one installed on the machine when it was built is not only inadvisable, it may not even be possible. The version of OS X originally installed on it contains drivers specifically intended for its hardware, at least some of which by definition did not exist on preceding models. Earlier versions of OS X may not have these drivers, so it may not install anyway, and if it does you may experience all sorts of problems.

From http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2186:

Both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs ship with a certain version of Mac OS X (or Mac OS X Server) on their installation disc(s). You should not install a version of Mac OS X earlier than that which came with your Mac.

If you install an earlier (previous) version of the Mac OS X than what was included, your computer may exhibit unexpected behavior such as:

• The trackpad or mouse may not respond properly
• The computer may stop responding
• Sleep/wake issues may occur
• The display image may appear to "shrink" with black bars around it, may appear tinted, or have other issues
• Loss of built-in audio
• Loss of Bluetooth or AirPort functionality
• May not start up past the Apple logo

The last one is most likely to occur.

Downgrading from where you are is not the proper approach. Trying to find what's going on is what you should do.

Have you repaired/verified all your drives with Disk Utility (not repair permissions)?

Tried smc and pram reset (just on general principles)?

Gotten rid of that Norton norton anti-virus stuff?

Have at least 20GB to 25GB free on your boot drive just for the OS to use?

Do you have enough ram for whatever it is you do? Read the following to help you determine whether you need mor ram or not:

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

. Any how if I don't downgrade can anyone give me advice to make my computer run faster? because it used to be really fast and now it seems to be running slowly I dont know if its viruses or something else. Again thanks for the advice I appreciate it.

Please carefully read 25 Ways to Speed Up Your Mac, performance issues are sometimes an accumlation of issues. Leading causes are inadequate HD space and not enough RAM. If you read and troubleshoot using the guide you will most likely recover a lot if not all your lost performance.

BTW it is safe to downgrade but the others are correct, it's unnecssary. However if you decide to first backup using Time Machine, then do an erase and install of Leopard...forget Tiger!

Most of the time a perception of general slow performance is the result of installing third party junk alleged to speed up, "clean" or "optimize" your Mac, or to look for viruses that don't exist. Ideally you would know what you installed so you can uninstall it, but if you don't know or aren't sure there are techniques such as Safe Mode and creating a temporary user account to confirm that suspicion.

If you open Activity Monitor it may show a process, or processes, that occupy a lot of your system's time.

Slowness confined solely to web browser activity is often the result of an inexorable progress toward websites that demand ever more processor-intensive tasks. If your slow performance is strictly limited to web browsing, you might try disabling Flash by either uninstalling it, or use utilities such as ClickToFlash that allow you to control what Flash content gets loaded. Flash in itself is not inherently evil, but there is nothing to stop websites or the advertisers who pay for them from writing horrible Flash code that can do everything from hogging 100% of your CPU's time to causing random crashes. You can watch Activity Monitor as in the above to correlate these troublesome web pages with performance degradation.

You are correct; if your computer shipped with Tiger you may certainly revert to it. I forgot that Tiger was shipping on new Macs as recently as five years ago. To downgrade it would be necessary to completely erase your hard disk and boot with the Tiger installation DVD, followed by installing it anew. Such drastic measures are not necessary and you are unlikely to be satisfied with the results anyway.

Assuming your system is free of third party parasitic junk attached to OS X in an ill-conceived attempt to improve upon it, that your hard disk drive is sound and the boot volume has enough free space to work with, by far the best performance-enhancing improvement would be to add more memory. Buy as much as your computer can use and that you can afford. 2 GB is not that much any more.

Read the following for some recommended troubleshooting techniques from Apple:

General purpose Mac troubleshooting guide: Isolating issues in Mac OS X

Creating a temporary user to isolate user-specific problems: Isolating an issue by using another user account

Memory limitations: Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

Identifying resource hogs and other tips: Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime

Starting the computer in "safe mode": Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

I had norton but it would make my computer very slow and when i tried to uninstall it it would still pop up asking me to subscribe which is extremely annoying.

Which is why it was on my list above! 😉 I guess though it doesn't want to go without a fight. Doesn't it have its own uninstaller?

At the present time there are no viruses for the mac although a few strains of trojans were floaing around a while back. Just keep java off and you are pretty much safe at the moment since these trojans were using flaws in java to get in. Still be careful wher you visit and don't fall for any scams.

Norton probably told you that you had many Windows viruses attached to emails you may have received. It is impossible for such things to affect Macs.

... Lets say I do have some sort of virus on my mac

You don't. What you have are a variety of "third party apps like clean my mac" that are most likely to have caused the slowdowns you describe.

Norton is one of the worst examples of such trash. The others you mentioned may have caused problems as well. To uninstall Norton see the following:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/norton-support/jsp/help-solutions.jsp?ct=us&doci d=20080427024142EN&lg=en&product=home&pvid=f-home&version=1

Norton / Symantec products go by various names so you will have to find out what you installed before you can conclude it has been completely eradicated.

Edit: No matter how I try I can't get the above link to direct to the specific Norton site that addresses its Mac products. Norton is just too clever by half. Just Google "uninstall Norton Mac" and you will find it.

Message was edited by: John Galt

Norton Removal Tool (Symantec Uninstaller):

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH103489&locale =en_US