Ever have the problem of Mac OS X running slowly and can’t seem to figure out why? For the first six months of using Mac OS X I used Activity Monitor when my computer was running slowly to find the program that was a resource hog and shut down the program overusing resources. Although Activity Monitor works perfectly well, I found a easier way to keep check on out of control programs with iStat menus. Using iStat menus I can keep track of my CPU, memory, hard drive activity, and network traffic from the menu bar. Additionally, iStat menus enables me to view specific details with just one click. I’m going to show how to install and configure iStat menus to show the most information in the smallest amount of space.

To install, go to iStat menus website and click the download link. Once the file is downloaded, run iStat Menus installer.app to install the software. Once the software is installed, go to System Preferences and click on the iStat menus icon at the bottom. Next, click on the CPU section and make sure “Monitor CPU Usage” is checked. Then go to the Memory section and select “Monitor Memory Usage”. In the drives section, select “Monitor Disk Usage”, set the Mode to Activity arrows, and check mark “Show activity in drop down”. Finally, go to Network and check mark “Monitor Network Usage” and set the Mode to text.

Once iStat menus is installed and configured it will alert you instantly when a program is using excessive resources and provide a link to Activity Monitor to shut the program down. In addition, iStat menus is fun to use to see how much bandwidth applications are using. Also, it can be fun to watch what how many cores and what percentage of of the cores different processes use. This is just my set up for iStat menus. There are a wealth of possible configerations available from monitoring fans to making a custom date and time icon. As always, feel free to experiment as this app is customizable to no end.