Free Up Inactive Memory in Mac OS X System with Purge Command

Mac OS X has fairly good memory management but it’s not perfect, and sometimes RAM can be held unnecessarily in the “inactive” state despite the contents no longer being needed. If you’ve been participating in memory heavy activities or you just need to free up some available RAM you can actually force Mac OS X to clear out inactive memory.

free-up-memory-mac

Launch Terminal, found in /Applications/Utilities/ and enter the following command

purge

Give OS X a minute or two to complete the process

Open Activity Monitor to see the before and after results yourself, you’ll find dramatic changes at the “Free”, “Used”, and “Inactive” meters under System Memory.

The purge command forces disk and memory caches to be emptied, offering a ‘cold disk buffer cache’ which is similar to the state of the operating system after a reboot. Of course, the benefit of using purge rather than rebooting is that you don’t have to restart the machine and you can maintain currently active applications while still freeing up memory

Apple has activated the new Find My Mac tool for developers with early access to Apple’s iCloud service, allowing users to locate, lock and even wipe a lost Mac computer

The new tool closely resembles the Find My iPhone service, despite the fact that Macs lack GPS,MacRumors reports. People familiar with the matter note that the service appears to use Wi-Fi networks to determine a Mac’s location.

Apple launches Find My Mac tool for iCloud.com beta

Find My Mac first appeared in contained evidence that Apple was planning to migrate MobileMe accounts over to the new iCloud service, codenamed “Castle.”

Four digit PIN code to regain access to the device

Upon locating a Mac, users can use the tool to play a sound, send a message, lock the screen and erase the hard drive. The service is expected to release to the public this fall along with iCloud.

After a Mac is locked by Find My Mac, a user will need to input a four digit PIN code to regain access to the device.
Apple announced iCloud in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference. The free service will include revamped versions of most of the MobileMe features; allow re-downloads of purchased iOS apps, books and music; and provide backup storage.

Apple activated the login page for iCloud.com, though not all users have been able to successfully login

On Monday, Apple activated the login page for iCloud.com, though not all users have been able to successfully login.

MAC OS X – Keyboard Shortcut – How to Force Quit an Application in Mac OS

Step #1: Press Command – Option – Escape simultaneously. If you need more explanation on how to find these keys read on:

1. Command is the button with the curly clover pattern on it. In pre 2008 apple keyboards it also had an apple icon on it. It is in the bottom left of your keyboard.
2. Alt/Option key is located at the bottom left of your keyboard.
3. Escape (Esc) is located at the top left hand corner of your keyboard.

Step #2: Select the application you want to force quit from the “Force Quit Applications” window that pops up. If the program has crashed, it will typically say “not responding” next to it in this menu.

Step #3: Click the button that says “Force Quit”.

In Dock – Make Hidden Applications Icons Transparent

If you hide a lot of applications you can make there icons transparent in the dock. A very good visual clue.

Hide:

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
killall Dock

Show:

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool FALSE
killall Dock

Mac OS X – Taking Screenshots

KeyBoard Shortcuts

• Command-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Control-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it to the clipboard
• Command-Control-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it to the clipboard
• Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard

In Leopard and later, the following keys can be held down while selecting an area (via Command-Shift-4 or Command-Control-Shift-4):

• Space, to lock the size of the selected region and instead move it when the mouse moves
• Shift, to resize only one edge of the selected region
• Option, to resize the selected region with its center as the anchor point

Set Default Formats

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type image_format
killall SystemUIServer

Where image_format is one of jpg, tiff, pdf, png, bmp or pict

From the Terminal

The screencapture command in the Terminal can also be used to capture screenshots, and is useful for scripts. Here is an example.

screencapture -iW ~/Desktop/screen.jpg

Reset 10.5 Leopard, 10.6 Snow Leopard password & OS X Lion

• Power on or restart your Mac.
• Hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
• This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.
• Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
• Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist and press Enter.
• Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
• Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.
• Type reboot and press Enter.