Questions about Activity Monitor

[dcs.79c]

I've browsed around Activity Monitor (hereafter called AM) & I have some questions.
When I click on the CPU tab, a lot of the processes show 0% CPU activity. What does that mean?

What are Idle Wake Ups? Some of the processes show both 0% CPU AND 0 Idle Wake Ups & yet some show 0% CPU & a number under the Idle Wake Ups column.

I grew up in the Windows world & I know that some processes can be set to manual or disable or automatic. I know that you are going to tell me that a Mac isn't Windows. Is it possible to set processes to manual or disable or automatic on the Mac?

 

[lclev]

0% CPU means the program (process/thread) is available but not in use therefore not taking up any CPU time. Some program or system process called threads that are needed is loaded but currently isn't using being used.

Idle wake ups: According to Intel an Idle Wake Up is the number of times a thread (process/program) caused the system to wake up from idleness to begin executing the thread.

https://software.intel.com/en-us/node/496836

It is a power savings feature introduced with Mavericks (I think) and is also used by Yosemite.

As to disabling processes - Not a good idea. OS X is not at all like Windows. OS X does a much better job of managing memory and other system resources. There are guys on here who could tell you how to do it but trust me it is not necessary. I have over 30 years on Windows systems and I know what you mean about tweaking processes having done it many times. I have never done anything like it on a Mac.

Lisa

 

[cradom]

Processes are run according to what is in the launchd file. In other words they either run, run on demand, or are run once.
The author of the process determines what the status will be according to what the process does.
Trying to "tweak" them is not a good idea.