Power up your Mac

Work faster and smarter, and boost your Mac’s performance

Discover 57 ways to boost your Mac’s performance by speeding up everyday tasks and learning to work smarter. Our comprehensive guide covers everything from shortcuts to SSDs.

After you’ve been using your Mac for awhile, you might at times start to feel that your experience is akin to wading through mud. But the thing is, although aging hardware can cause problems, the way you use your Mac can usually make more of a difference.

This feature is all about powering up your Mac. Not necessarily in a literal sense — we’ll talk about upgrading your hardware, but the reality is that the vast majority of Macs in recent years are essentially sealed boxes, and there’s a limit to what you can add to boost their performance. The days are gone when you could crack open a Mac, replace a bunch of its internal components, and end up with a revitalized, screaminglyfast computer. Mostly, then, we’re looking at everything else — ways in which you can “think different” about how you interact with your Mac, how you use apps, and how you set things up.

We’ll show you how to get the best from your input devices, whether you prefer a keyboard or a trackpad, and how to automate and speed up everyday tasks. You’ll learn how to save time and make life more convenient by using iCloud or other cloud storage options, so your stuff is easily accessible on any device and wherever you are. And we’ll explain how to find and cull the memory hogs and dinosaurs among your apps, and optionally replace them with lighter, faster alternatives, so your Mac starts up faster and performs better.

Follow our advice and, even if you don’t go the extra step and make any changes to your Mac’s hardware itself, it will nonetheless feel like it’s had a power boost, as you head towards a faster, more productive future.