Accelerate Mac startup with these easy tips c/o Flickr

Is your Mac starting up slower than it used to? Have you already run Disk Utility to check the condition of your machine, and it seems to be OK? Here’s a few things you can try to:

How to make your Mac start-up faster

Control login items

You may have some applications, server connections and background processes that launch whenever you login to your user account on your Mac. It speeds up start-up time if you get rid of those if you no longer need them. To do so, open System Preferences>Users & Groups, and select Login items. To get rid of one or more of the login items you might have installed, select them and then click the minus icon. (You may need to enter your Apple ID).

Reopening old apps

You can accelerate Mac start-up times by changing a setting in the  Menu>Log Out item, just uncheck the ‘Reopen windows after logging back in’ item. This choice will be remembered by your system until you change it again. It’s particularly effective when used on Macs that use a hard disk.

Window matters

You’ll boost start-up times if you prevent apps remembering the windows you had open when you quit them. Open System Preferences>General to do this, uncheck the Close windows when quitting an app item in that pane. In future, if you want an app to recall what you had open when you quit the software just press Option-Command-Q.

Make the visuals boring

You may see a small start-up speed improvement if you turn off transparency and motion effects:

• Launch System Preferences>Accessibility>Display
• Check (turn on) ‘Reduce Motion’ and ‘Reduce Transparency’.

Clean up your Mac

Macs need a certain amount of clear storage capacity to run at their best. As a rule of thumb, you should leave around 10 percent free. Check your Mac’s spare storage capacity in About this Mac>Storage. If you need to make some space, tap Manage and use the tools (Store in iCloud, Optimize Storage, Empty Trash and Reduce Clutter) you find there. You should also delete large movie files and make sure to prune your Downloads folder.

Tidy up

It used to be the case that keeping your Mac Desktop clean would improve start-up times. Macs are a little more forgiving on this these days, but it’s still good practice to keep things tidy. Just use an application like Declutter to automate this for you. Or at least file all your digital papers every week.

Disconnect stuff

Disconnect all the peripherals. Restart your Mac? Is it any faster? If it is, in future, just connect up the peripherals as and when you need them.

Hopefully these quick and easy steps will make your Mac start-up faster. Do you have any other Mac tips? Please let us know in comments below.