It looks like a trifle, a trick that you might almost think is a joke, but cleaning the desktop of our Mac speeds up the whole machine in general. A very simple task that will ensure that our old Macs will not slow down due to lack of order.
And everything for the graphical management of desktop icons
The situation is quite simple. The way Macs graphically handle icons (as they tell us at Lifehacker) means that desktop content has a significant impact on performance. Therefore, the solution to a slow-responsing Mac, especially the Finder and specifically the desktop, is to clear it of its contents.
We can move files and folders to Documents, then add those folders to the Finder sidebar for quick access if needed. After a reboot you should notice an improvement. substantial performance. Substantial, all things considered, depending on the number of cases.
Yes, desktop icons can impact the speed of a Mac.
During my training, I’ve seen desktop computers with literally thousands of icons on them. If in our case we have 10 or 12, the improvement will be much less noticeable. Also say that the APFS file system, which we can activate on our Mac if it is not yet used, with the arrival of the solid-state storage left this drawback behind.
In any case, if we have an old Mac, one with mechanical hard drives, one in which the desktop is loaded with files and folders, let’s do the test: let’s move all the content to Documents. Without issue we will notice a clear improvement in the speed of the machine.