Automator application to run "killall" for many processes?

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Hey,

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
Yosemite 10.10.2 (14C109)
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB

I am annoyed about so many unnecessary processes my Mac has, which eat up all the memory and PCU and don't allow me to work on projects which require a lot of processing power.

I would want to create an Automator Application which would kill all the hanging processes, or some completely unnecessary processes, and just all apps I don't need to use as well.
I tried to do it by:
Automator ▸ Application ▸ Run Shell Script ▸ killall "process_name"

That would work for me, but when a process isn't there, it doesn't skip it and kill the next one, but stops.

Anyone know what could I do with it, or maybe some better alternatives?


Thank you.
 
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I guess I am lost as to why you are going this route. First if you are having to kill processes they have to be loading from some apps you have auto starting or they are necessary for Yosemite to run.

So what apps are you running that can't run with the specs your mac has? I have a 2011 with very similar specs to yours and I edit hour long videos on it with all kinds of special effects, titles, etc and it has no issues handling it. One of the nice perks to come with Yosemite was it's memory management ability.

Just curious as to what apps your running that needs so much system resources that you have to kill processes. And does it help when you do?

Here are some articles I found about how to eliminate processes:

http://www.interrupt19.com/2009/05/21/speed-up-your-mac-eliminate-background-processes/

http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2013/01/13/how-do-you-turn-off-unneeded-processes-on-an-imac/

They make for interesting reads but not sure if it will help with what you want. There is a free app in the app store called System Lens that could be of interest too.

I still believe Yosemite should be able to adjust and handle your system resources without having to kill processes.


Lisa
 
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I guess I am lost as to why you are going this route. First if you are having to kill processes they have to be loading from some apps you have auto starting or they are necessary for Yosemite to run.

So what apps are you running that can't run with the specs your mac has? I have a 2011 with very similar specs to yours and I edit hour long videos on it with all kinds of special effects, titles, etc and it has no issues handling it. One of the nice perks to come with Yosemite was it's memory management ability.

Just curious as to what apps your running that needs so much system resources that you have to kill processes. And does it help when you do?

Lisa

Hey Lisa,

Thanks for taking the time to write.

After Effects (sometimes with Cinema 4D), Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Red Giant MBL (or DaVinci Resolve) combined with Chrome (looking up information, images, solving issues) - all at the same time, but I try to avoid to run multiple apps if unnecessary.
Additionally I run apps like Suitcase 6, OmniGroup apps, etc, but they don't take as much as AE.

When I calculated all the small processes which take up to around 100MB of RAM eat up like 10GB, just to run the system? No way. I don't accept it. Fresh system, no startup apps. So I quit hand by hand some processes, which I didn't know what are for, first googling and making sure it's not something like "kernel_task." Turns out, that without most of these processes, my computer works just fine. Nothing bad happens, I have more memory, some of them will turn back again, but generally "no big deal, works just fine."
With all the apps (not processes) closed, there is just enough of the memory so I can do 3D work (nothing crazy) in AE. If I want to do small edit in Photoshop, or Illustrator, AE throws out at me, that "sry, no mo mmory. GFY." Restart AE, and again, and again.

I don't need these little processes to work on projects. I don't care what it does or doesn't, if I won't use it, then "get off my way you com.apple's and mdworkers."

Also, I would want to quit all the apps I won't use automatically. Like DropBox, Drive, , Keyboard Maestro, Growl, ... and just all the small apps, I had to turn on to for example prepare work to do in Adobe suite. And kill all the processes.

I need more memory, not more processes. That's why I need to find a way, like mentioned in my 1st post.


Thank you for any assistance.
 
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I get it. I run about all of the programs you have listed. I don't even try to run AE on my MB Pro. I have a Windows 7 editor built on a server board with two Xeons, 24GB of memory, main drive SSD plus a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4GB video card. AE makes it work hard. It is probably with out a doubt the hardest program to run on it and when I do, it is the only program running if I have a complex project on it.

But back to the MB Pro. I can run Premiere Pro CS6 with no issues on the MB Pro with Photoshop and the Bridge open. For anything else more complex it is back to the Windows editor.

My next big upgrade is to a Mac Pro for just the reasons you have experienced. I need the computing power and I really believe Macs handle programs like AE better and smoother. But when I get a Mac Pro I will be looking to get as much processor power, memory, and video card memory and GPU as I can afford.

It seems every upgrade in a program put more demands on the computer and frankly I have to be able to to turn out quantities of work fast every week which mean I don't have time to wait on long rendering and encoding times.

So I get it but I just don't know how much of a boost you will see by killing processes. I would be interested to hear about what you find.

Lisa
 

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