It all makes for a healthier Mac
September 26th, 2007
Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed that my Mac has been slowly grinding to a halt, overheating and basically not bringing me as much maccy joy as she used to.
After a little investigation, I discovered that (for some unknown reason) Dashboard was chewing up memory and processor power by the fistful. In fact, it was claiming a mighty 80% chunk of my 2.3 Ghz core 2 duo.
80% !?! Something had to be done.
After a little investigation I discovered that there was a way to completely disable my little used Dashboard. The Dashboard app is run as a process of the Dock, so it’s a two stage task to disable the pesky thing.
First, start terminal and type the following
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
This will tell your mac that you no longer require Dashboard, then restart your Dock…
killall Dock
There. All better. If you (for some strange reason) decide that the Dashboard is a good idea, you can reverse the process with this command.
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
The run the ‘killall’ again, and you’re back in business - Although why you’d want this piece of useless gadgetry is beyond me. Have fun!
