Very active in economic and IT troubles.What is a modest Mac default app?

Life Hacker [Japanese version] Reprinted from the article published on February 2, 2022

One of the utility, which is mounted on the Mac default, has many functions, such as forcing an application that is seemingly plain but forcibly terminated.

If you know how to use it, it's actually a very useful software.You can check the operating status of the CPU and network in real time, and it also helps to solve problems that occur on the machine (in most cases, you do not need to go to the question application).

If you know the convenient usage and small tricks of the activity monitor, you will want to use it immediately.

1. Enable Dock display of activity monitor

The activity monitor icon displayed in the Dock has a function to display useful information in real time in this small square.

Thanks to this, compared to most other icons, the merit of displaying it in the Dock is greater, so it is worth setting to give a fixed position and always display it.

To add an icon to the Dock, first start the activity monitor on the Mac you are using.

If you do not know where this software is, display the Spotlight search field with the keyboard shortcut [Command + Space Bar], call the function, and search for "Activity Monitor".

When you launch this app, the icon will be displayed in the Dock.Right -click on this activity monitor icon and select [Dock icon].

From the submenu displayed here, choose the item that you think is most worth displayed in the Dock icon.

Specifically, there are items such as "Display CPU usage", "Show CPU history", "Display network usage status", "Display the operation status of disk".

Once you select the items you need, right -click the icon and select [Options]> Add to Dock.

2. Change the display method of the process

If you find it difficult to see the process display of the activity monitor, launch this app and customize it from the menu bar displayed on the screen.

If you select [Display], the options are listed under the section line after the [Update frequency] menu, so choose a display method that is easy to understand for you.

Here, there are quite interesting options, such as [All processes (hierarchical display)].If you select this display method, you can easily understand the relationship between the apps that are now standing and any process.

For example, you can see "Telegram" in an app linked to the process of "com.apple.audio.sandboxhelper".

3. Increase the update frequency of activity monitors

If you are struggling to identify the process that monopolizes resources on the Mac you are using, you can also increase the frequency of updates on activity monitors.By default, information is updated every 5 seconds, but it is possible to further speed up.

Open the activity monitor and select [Display]> [Update frequency].The update frequency can be increased from the default [standard (every 5 seconds)] to [Most (2 seconds)], and even [very large (every second)].

4. Change the data displayed on the activity monitor

The activity monitor also displays useful information such as CPU usage rates for each process, GPU usage, and user account name that runs each process.

In addition to this, if you want to refer to other data points, you can easily change it by default.Launch an activity monitor, proceed with [Display]> [Display items], and select the data point you want to refer to.

For example, the memory usage rate is hidden by default, but can be displayed with simple operations.There are some other useful data points, such as the number of sending / receiving bytes, so it is a good idea to consider changing the settings.

5. Display the details of the process and get more information

Suppose you find more detailed information in the process displayed on the activity monitor.

In that case, select the process and drive [Command + I] in the keyboard shortcut.In this way, you can "display the process details".

Here, you can check more detailed information, such as the memory size used by the process and the period of running.

You can also access this option by selecting the process you want to know the details and then selecting [Display]> [Display the process].

6. Copy the process name to use it for trouble shooting

You may be aware of the display of the activity monitor and have an unresponsive or unidentified process.If you want to know more about this process, the first place to check is the Internet.

In general, if you want to get more information about the process you care about, it's a good way to go back to the process name.

However, for example, it is not necessary to type long and included names such as "com.appkit.xpc.openandsavepanelservice (Safari)" in a search window one by one.

Select the process of the questions displayed on the activity monitor and press [Command + C] to copy all information about this process in one shot.If you paste this in the search window, you will get more information.

7. Use the search bar to quickly find apps and processes

A search bar is available in the upper right corner of the activity monitor window.If hundreds of processes are displayed, use this search bar to quickly find what you need.

If the activity monitor window is selected, you can use this feature with the Keyboard shortcut [Command + Option + F].

8. Perform system diagnosis

First of all, this option is not recommended for anyone who is familiar with the system.It takes a lot of time to execute a system diagnosis, and the information obtained from the diagnosis should not make sense for those who only have average knowledge.

As a matter of fact, I would like to introduce here that one of the most unknown functions of activity monitors can execute the Mac system diagnosis used.

This is a function that helps people with specialized technical knowledge (for example, Apple's support staff) to identify the cause of machine problems.

To use this option, open the activity monitor and select the View menu.From here, select [Execute system diagnosis…] to start the diagnosis.