Older laptops have a limited amount of RAM, and a lack of RAM can often affect their performance (back in the day, 8GB of RAM was great...nowadays, it's just barely enough to get by).
Here are some things that can help improve the performance of your laptop (and the more of these things you're able to do, the better):
- Get your laptop re-imaged. When a laptop gets erased and a new version of the operating system is installed, all of the junk that builds up over time is cleared out.
- Use only a few apps at a time. Limited RAM means less ability to multitask, so try not to have too many apps running at once. If you’re not using an app, quit the unused app (Command+Q) and don’t just close it. More apps running = more RAM usage.
- Try not to have too many items on your desktop (i.e. keep your desktop as clear as possible by putting all of your files and folders in your OneDrive folder). Every file and folder on your desktop uses RAM and resources. More desktop items = more RAM usage.
- Use Safari instead of Chrome. Chrome uses more RAM than Safari.
- Try to only have a handful of browser tabs open at a time (3-5 tabs). Every browser tab you have open uses RAM and slows down your machine. More tabs = more RAM usage.
- Try not to have too many windows or full-screen apps open at a time. More open windows = more RAM usage.
- If you don’t use Creative Cloud apps, quit the main Creative Cloud app. Creative Cloud often checks the Adobe servers for updates and downloads updates in the background (which can slow things down on your whole computer).
- Reducing visual effects can help free up your computer's resources. Open the System Preferences app and click on Accessibility. On the left, click on Display. Under the Display tab, check the boxes for "Reduce motion" and "Reduce transparency."
- Make sure your hard drive has plenty of free space. When your hard drive gets too full, your Mac will start to slow down.
If you're able to do all of these things at the same time, your laptop will hopefully run a bit better than before.
