13 ways to fix a slow Mac computer and improve speed

It comes on slowly, reducing page load times and responsiveness over weeks or even months, until you notice that your Mac isn't running as fast as it used to.

How can you do that?

There are 13 potential reasons why your Mac is running slowly, as well as tips to help speed it up.

Devon Delfino/Business Insider

In a perfect world, we would browse the internet while working on documents, scanning for viruses and video conferencing with friends at the same time. It is possible that the amount of activity on your computer is the reason it is not as fast as it used to be.

Close apps and tabs that you aren't using. Open apps appear in the bottom of your screen with a small dot just below the icon. Simply right-click the app and then select quit to close those out.

If you want to use a triage approach, you can use the Activity Monitor. If you don't know what it is, it's probably best to keep it open.

The Activity Monitor can be opened by you.

1. Clicking on Finder in the dock.
2. Select Applications on the left menu and then click on Utilities on the right pane.
3. Double-click on Activity Monitor to open the tool.

Since our browsers are capable of opening multiple tabs, we tend to go crazy. We might have five social media tabs open at any given time.

We don't know if the browser is creating separate processes for these tabs, which is akin to opening an app, which slows down our computer.

Close all the tabs you are not using. You can simply close all of them and open the ones you need, instead of having to figure out which tabs to close.

We have a guide that can help you easily close all the tabs. The red button is located at the top left corner of the browser window.

If your Mac is new, it will be able to meet the demands of the current software, and it will continue to do so for the next few years.

As the software gets more advanced, it will demand more than your Mac can give. If your Mac gets too old, you won't be able to run the latest version of macOS.

If you have had your Mac for more than five years, it is time to get a new one. Click on the Apple icon on the top left and select About This Mac. You should be able to see when the Mac was released.

If the above options do not work for you, it is a good idea to get a professional to look it over, and if your Mac is still within the AppleCare warranty, it may even be time to buy a new computer.