High Memory Consumption with OS X El Capitan

Thanks for all of your advice. I bought some OWC RAM and installed it. All my problems stopped and my computer runs faster than ever with the RAM and my SSD. Thank you again for all of your advice!

You've also have some AV software installed and it's totally worthless and not needed.

com.trendmicro.icore.av.plist

com.trendmicro.icore.main.plist

com.trendmicro.icore.wp.plist]

com.trendmicro.itis.plugin.plist

com.mcafee.virusscan.eupdate.plist

Uninstall these apps according to the developer's instructions and reboot.

Also you have some obsolete software installed:

Startup Items: (What does this mean?)

cma: Path: /Library/StartupItems/cma

ParallelsDesktopTransporter: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ParallelsDesktopTransporter

PKard: Path: /Library/StartupItems/PKard

Startup items are obsolete in OS X Yosemite

Check and get updated versions for all of them.

You don't think that MAC OS's are vulnerable to attack? I'm not objecting to what you are saying, I'm asking out of my own ignorance. Thanks for your advice and insights!

They are vulnerable to attack but not from viruses. There's adware and malware which require the user to allow them to be installed even though they may be hidden in some install package for a legitimate app. Do not download and install from cNet, MacUpdate without an account or any peer-to-peer site. The A/V software are not designed to detect them and are generally worthless. Also the A/V software is known to affect system and application performance.

The only problem with that is that my MBA is always in the yellow and sometimes in the red and the system struggles then. Apps should use as little memory as possible instead of releasing memory. There is a leak somewhere in EC that doesn't do this properly.

Download and run Etrecheck. Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here (and recommended by Apple Support personnel) in the ASC to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Thanks again!