![]() All these items have sub-menus that display additional information. The battery charge percentage is also displayed. A low figure can indicated a poor internet connection or an overloaded server. It can be useful to keep an eye on the download speed when you are downloading big files because it shows the quality of the internet connection. If the Mac is connected only to the internet and not a networked disk, then the network in and out figures correspond to the internet download and upload speeds. The network in and out is the amount of data that is being transmitted over the network. (Choose Fahrenheight or Celcius in Preferences.) How high is too high? It varies with the CPU and some can run reliably at up to 100 C. When the CPU is working hard, the temperature will rise and the fan will increase its speed in an effort to keep the system cool. Too high a temperature can cause stability problems or even processor failure. Show energy consumption, CPU activity and more There is too much to show here, so let's look at just a couple of items. The second section of the menu shows a collection of useful statistics such as the CPU average load, the CPU temperature, fan speed, system memory and more. MiniUsage menu bar hardware/software monitor Start up a few apps and take a fresh look at this menu to see the load the CPU is under. If your Mac is running slowly you can display this menu and see which apps are responsible for hogging all the processor time. In the screen shot this Mac is idling and nothing is using the processor significantly. The first section on the menu shows the apps that are using the processor the most. You can choose what information this item displays and in the screenshot it is showing internet downloads, but it could show CPU activity or other things.Ĭlick it and a menu is displayed that contains a lot of interesting information about the hardware and software. When MiniUsage is run, it adds an extra item to the menu bar at the top of the screen. There is an option in MiniUsage preferences for it to automatically start when you log in to your Mac. You won't see any of these messages again and next time MiniUsage just runs when it is clicked. In this case, the app is fine, so go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Security and Privacy, then under Allow apps downloaded from, choose Open Anyway.Ī new message appears and this time you can run the app. This message is just for your information. ![]() Software from unidentified developers are blocked Security settings on the Mac do not allow apps from outside of the Mac App Store to be run and you will probably see a message like this. Go into Applications/MiniUsage and double click MiniUsage.app. Double click MiniUsage.dmg to open the archive and then drag the MiniUsage folder to the Applications folder. Show network activity like internet downloads in the menu barĭownload MiniUsage from the website and then open the Downloads folder on the Mac.Detect problems with software or macOS and see when apps are using excessive CPU or RAM.Detect problems like overheating by monitoring the temperature inside the Mac.Some people are curious about how the Mac works and this shows what happens behind the scenes.Direct from the developer is a version that was updated less than a year ago and is bang up to date. ![]() The Mac App Store does not always have the latest or the best software and if you go to the developer’s website there is sometimes a better or more recent version, as can be seen with MiniUsage. Forget it, it is so out of date you don't want it. This free utility can be found in the Mac App Store, but the version there is v1.5 with a last updated date of 2012. Sometimes you want to download a big file, but keep an eye on the download speed without having Safari on the screen.Īll these items and more can be monitored using a menu bar utility called MiniUsage. Sometimes the Mac runs hot or the fan seems to be blowing extra hard.Ī utility to monitor the hardware can tell you when components are being worked excessively hard or when they are idling under minimal load. You might want to see what is using all the processing power, check the CPU temperature, see how many times a MacBook battery has been charged, and so on. Sometimes the battery drains faster than it should do. Sometimes the Mac runs more slowly than usual. What is going on under the surface of the Mac's graphical interface? Is it working hard or idling, downloading or uploading, hot or cool? Monitor the hardware and software with MiniUsage.
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