Does keeping a lot of folders on the desktop slows your mac?

[Kirikos]

I heard that a lot of stuff on your desktop significantly reduces your mac speed.
Does it make any difference if you have them on the desktop or somewhere else if they are not running? Whats the best way in this case to speed up your mac? Thanks

 

[Mac Guy]

I heard that a lot of stuff on your desktop significantly reduces your mac speed.

It can, depending on the Mac and the number of folders. The CPU and GPU need to constantly redraw the desktop when you open a window. The more stuff 'stored' on the desktop the more it has to redraw every time you open or move a window. Macs with lots of memory, a fast CPU, a good GPU, and solid state storage can make this a non-issue. Lesser-hung Macs might see a slowdown.

How you speed up your Mac depends on exactly what Mac you have. Replacing a spinning platter hard drive (HDD) with a solid state drive (SSD) will definitely speed up a Mac. But that's not possible with some, unless you boot from an external.

Give your storage drive (Hdd or SSD) about 20% free space. Keep your OS clean as possible. Some people reinstall a fresh copy of the OS once a year. Make sure all your apps are compatible for your OS. Make sure your hardware supports any OS you want to use. Some OSs can tax older Mac gear. Run DiskWarrior on your OS from time to time. (A pricey app, but it's been well worth my money for years!)

Restart your Mac holding the Shift key until you see a log in screen. Log in, and when in, immediately restart. What this does is start up in Safe Boot and run First Aid. Much functionality is turned off to do this, so that's why you immediately restart, to get back to normal.

Again, what Mac you have determines what you can do to speed it up, apart from general OS care.

 

[Kirikos]

Thanks. I am using macbook air mid 2013. it has a ssd drive, so i guess i should be ok.
also my ssd is quickly getting filled up. so i am planning to replace it with owc 500gb
at B&H store here in nyc i was told that (since its not original)
it will significantly reduce my performance.
i wasn't able to verify that. any comments

 

[Bazza1]

Thanks. I am using macbook air mid 2013. it has a ssd drive, so i guess i should be ok.
also my ssd is quickly getting filled up. so i am planning to replace it with owc 500gb
at B&H store here in nyc i was told that (since its not original)
it will significantly reduce my performance.
i wasn't able to verify that. any comments

As I understand it, the Air's SSD is not something that can be swapped out. Like the RAM, its basically welded into place on the motherboard. To get more space onboard means a new computer completely.

For my part, I finally came full time to Mac from Windows with my mid-2011 Air. Initially - given experience with Windows - I was a little concerned with the limited RAM (4GB) and storage (128GB), but I have a whack of docs and pdfs, 26 movies plus TV shows, 1500 songs, 1300 photos, plus miscellaneous apps on it, and still have just under 40GB free. And I rarely get the 'beachball', though I don't do any real 'heavy lifting' on my Air.
Stuff I don't really use all that often, plus manual backup and Time Machine I have on a portable external drive. That's a HDD, but external SSDs are dropping in price and would be the route I'd probably go now for such storage. Even smaller and more robust.

I try and keep the computer tidy - I use CCleaner and Dr Cleaner (both free) to keep the flotsam in check, and maybe once a month will run Onyx (not in the Mac Store) to do a deeper tidy and purge.

 

[Kirikos]

OWC now has SSD drives that you can replace up to 1TB

 

[Tech198]

It can, depending on the Mac and the number of folders.

Yep, same reason u shouldn't stick heaps of files 1000+ files in same folder either for the same reason... Scrolling through will slow it down. Which i'm still trying to believe why is true, as Windows hs no problem, So, why is is an problem with Apple.