Mac guides
Figure out what’s slowing your Mac down.
Practical, plain-language guides for the moments your Mac gets slow, loud, or stuck. Each one starts with the short answer and links to the deeper detail when you need it.
Start with the problem you have.
Task Manager for Mac
Open Activity Monitor, find Ctrl+Alt+Delete on a Mac, and read what you see.
Read the guide →TroubleshootingWhy is my Mac running slow?
A step-by-step check of CPU, memory, storage, and the background work you forgot about.
Read the guide →Memory“Your system has run out of application memory”
What the alert means, what to close first, and how to stop it coming back.
Read the guide →BasicsCheck CPU and memory usage
Activity Monitor, Terminal, and the menu bar, plus what memory pressure really measures.
Read the guide →Heat and noiseWhy is my MacBook fan so loud?
The fan is a symptom. Find what’s making your Mac work hard.
Read the guide →BasicsHow to force quit on a Mac
Every way to close a frozen app, and when quitting normally is the safer choice.
Read the guide →Process library
Don’t recognize a process?
Names like kernel_task, mds_stores, and WindowServer show up in Activity Monitor all the time. The process library explains what each one does, why it sometimes uses a lot of CPU or memory, and when it’s safe to step in.
Get Spare
Free to use. Yours to explore.
Download Spare for Apple silicon, or explore the MIT-licensed source on GitHub. Free to use, with no subscription or account.
macOS 14+ · Apple silicon · Signed and notarized