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Hi
After going through my activity monitor I noticed a bunch of items I have no idea what they are. I would like to get rid of them if they are useless and/or some type of bug in my computer.
How can I figure out what needs to be kept and what can be deleted?
Thank You
MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
Most of the stuff you see in Activity Monitor are system processes - some can't even be quit. The only things that you can safely 'kill' are those applications that you have running - and all you have to do is quit those applications from their menu to stop seeing them in Activity Monitor.
So unless you just want - for some reason - to quit applications using AM, it's best to just leave most of the processes alone.
Clinton
Jonny_NYC wrote:
Hi
After going through my activity monitor I noticed a bunch of items I have no idea what they are. ...
Then leave them alone...
Is it very unlikely that I will have a bug/virus running in AM?
Also, I have a few duplicates that have the same "Process Name". Is this normal? Specifically "Google Chrome Renderer".
Thanks Again
Normal - and I assume that you use Google Chrome?
Clinton
Yes, I use Chrome.
It's impossible for any Chrome application to be deemed a virus or anything else in the AM?
Not that I know of - I've never even heard of any Chrome malware or viruses. Chrome justtakes up a lot of resources, since it does it's own Flash, pdf, etc. I wouldn't worry about it.
Clinton
After an application is deleted (not just chrome), is it possible for there to still be parts of that application running in AM?
It depends on how you deleted the application - if you used an uninstaller provided with the application, then there should be no processes left behind after a restart. Some applications - not many - may leave processes behind if you simply trash the applications (MS Office comes to mind).
So, yes, it's possible - just not probable.
Clinton
Thanks Again.
This thread reminds me of when you first get behind the wheel of a fancy European car like a Mercedes or a BMW. Gazilliion knobs and buttons, all with mysterious ISO symbols and nary a readable label. đź
And, of course, you don't go about tearing out every control you don't understand just because it "may cause an accident"........ đ
What is your reccomendation to make sure you don't have items in the AM that shouldnt be there?
Everything that shows up in Activity Monitor is a process that's needed either by the system or by applications that are running. So there's really not a thing that 'shouldn't be there'...
Clinton
Jonny_NYC wrote:
What is your reccomendation to make sure you don't have items in the AM that shouldnt be there?
If you're still keen on going a-bug-hunting, concentrate on all the processes whose User is your login account for starters. Those correspond to programs you installed directly, indirectly or unknowningly. Ask yourself if/when you set them up and if you really need them.
Before fiddling with anything whose User is different from your login account (like root, _windowserver and others), it would help that you read up and familiarize yourself to how a Unix system works and all the bits & pieces that comprise it.
Hi Courcoul
If there are users other than my login account, root and _windowserver, could they be corrput files that are running?
Thanks
Jonny_NYC why are you fretting so much about this? All those processes that you see running in Activity Monitor are there for a very good reason. And seriously, unless you're a complete Unix expert you'd do well to leave them all alone.
What is unnecessary in Activity Monitor?
