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- Background Running Apps Mac Sierra
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- Background Running Apps Android
As you probably know, Windows 10 comes with a bunch of apps pre-installed on your system.
In addition to those pre-installed apps you might have also installed one or more additional apps from the Microsoft Store.
By default, most of those apps run in the background at all times – even the ones you never use!
There are several reasons why apps stop responding and it could be one or a combination of these reasons: Background apps stopped working. This happens when the apps that are running in the background encountered a glitch and stopped working. These background apps are automatically launched when you start your Mac. Apps move to the background state for many reasons. When the user exits a foreground app, that app moves to the background state briefly before UIKit suspends it. The system may also launch an app directly into the background state, or move a suspended app into the background, and give it time to perform important tasks.
In most cases having all those apps running in the background serves no useful purpose, but it does have a couple of serious downsides:
1 – Every running background app uses a portion of your system resources (RAM, CPU cycles, etc.), and that makes your machine run a little slower than it would if those apps weren’t running.
2 – Some background apps “phone home” on a regular basis to check for available updates and/or send usage information back to Microsoft or to the companies that supplied the apps.
Of course that uses Internet data – and that’s a bad thing if you’re on a limited data plan.
What’s more, sending data back to a remote server could potentially put your privacy at risk.
As you can see, it’s not a good thing to have all of your installed apps running in the background 24/7.
Of course there are some types of apps that do need to be running in the background such as an email app that needs to check the mail server on occasion to see if you’ve received any new messages.
But those “must-run” apps are few and far between and chances are none of your installed apps really need to run in the background.
Luckily, it’s very easy to prevent your apps from running in the background. You can even choose to disable ALL background apps in one fell swoop or just the ones that you never use. The choice is yours.
Important: Preventing an app from running in the background doesn’t mean you can’t use it. It simply means it won’t be running in the background when you aren’t using it.
You can launch and use any app that’s installed on your system at any time simply by clicking its entry on the Start Menu.
![Background Background](https://www.coderewind.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screenshot_2016-01-27-18-30-24-1.png)
Just follow the steps below to prevent one or more apps from running in the background on your Windows 10 machine:
1 – Click the Start button.
2 – As soon as the Start Menu pops up type the words background apps.
3 – Click Choose which apps can run in the background.
You should now see a Settings screen listing all the apps that are currently running in the background.
If you want to disable ALL those background apps in one fell swoop simply toggle the “Let apps run in the background” setting to Off.
If you want to allow one or more apps to run in the background, leave that setting set to On and disable the apps in the list as desired.
4 – Restart your computer.
That’s all there is to it. The background apps you disabled should no longer be running in the background.
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Knowing which Apps or Processes are running on your Mac is important, because some of these Apps could be slowing down your Mac. You will find below 4 different ways to show All the Running Apps and Processes on your Mac.
Why to See All Running Apps and Processes on Mac
In case you are coming from a Windows computer, you must be used to opening the Task Manager on your Windows computer, in order to take a look at all the running apps and processes on your computer.
In the case of a Mac, there are multiple ways to see all the Running Apps and Programs, ranging from the simple option of using the Dock to using the Terminal command.
In general, the purpose of taking a look at All the Running Apps and Programs on your Mac is to get an idea of which programs are actively running on your Mac, what resources they are using and also to rule out the possibility of any unnecessary programs running in the background and using up resources on your computer.
Show All Running Apps and Processes On Mac Using the Activity Monitor on Mac
Activity Monitor can be described as the Mac equivalent of a Task Manager in a Windows computer. The Activity Monitor provides a very good view of the App and processes running on your Mac and the amount of resources being uses by these Apps and Processes.
1. Click on the Finder icon located in the left corner of the Dock (See image below)
2. On the next screen, click on Applications in the left sidebar menu and then click on the Utilities folder.
3. In the Utilities folder, click on Activity Monitor which should be the first item in Utilities Folder (See image below)
4. Once Activity Monitor opens, you will be able see a list of All the Processes or Applications currently running on your Mac (See image below)
Desktop Backgrounds For Mac
As you can see in the above image, there are 5 different tabs in the Activity Monitor -> CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk and Network.
Clicking on each tab will show you more details, for example, clicking on the Memory Tab will show you how much memory each process is using. Similarly, clicking on the CPU tab will show you the amount of CPU being used by each of these Apps and Processes running on your Mac.
5. To view more info about a specific Process or Application, simply click on the Application/Process and then click on the i icon button located at the top left Corner of the screen (See image below).
6. To force quit an application or process through Activity Monitor, simply click on the application you would like to force quit and then click on the x button, located at the top left side of your screen (See image below)
Show All Running Apps On Mac Using Force Quit Applications Manager
Another method to check all the Running apps and programs on your Mac is through the Force Quit applications manager on Mac.
1. Click on the Apple icon in the top menu bar of your Mac and then click on Force Quit Application in the drop-down menu (See image below).
2. This will open the Force Quit Applications manager which will show you all running apps on your Mac
3. To force quit one of these applications, simply click on the application from the list and click on the Force Quit button.
Show Running Apps and Processes On Mac using the Terminal Command
Background Running Apps Mac Sierra
The Terminal also shows you a detailed view of which applications and processes are running on your Mac, along with the percentage of CPU used by each of these applications/processes.
1. To open Terminal on your Mac, do a spotlight search for the Terminal by pressing the Command + Space keys on your Mac keyboard and searching for Terminal in Spotlight Search. (See image below)
2. Next double click on the Terminal option or press the enter key on your Mac’s keyboard to open up Terminal
Fun Running Apps
3. In the terminal type in top –o cpu and press the enter key on your keyboard
This will show you a list of all running apps and processes with the apps consuming the most CPU at the top of the list.
4. To reorganize this list close the Terminal and reopen it. Once Terminal reopens type in top –o rsize and press the enter key on your keyboard.
Now applications or processes which are using the most memory will be listed at the top of the list and the application or processes using the least memory will be listed at the bottom of the list.
![Background Background](https://www.howtogeek.com/thumbcache/2/200/3d197a63664aa6189e0babefd1f46141/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/img_56b7ccc82ac7c.png)
Show Running Apps Through Dock
The easiest way to view running apps on your Mac is by simply taking a look at your dock.
All running applications will have a black dot underneath the applications icon (See image below)
While this method is easy to follow, it sometimes will not show you all apps running in the background and does not even show you which processes are running in the background.
Background Running Apps Android
This method also does not give you much detail, like how much memory each application is using or how much CPU is being used by each application.