Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!

Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost Apps
To get a real boost from Virtual PC 6, try downloading Tinkertool, and use it to Quit the Finder whilst running Virtual PC. I find it gives a great speed boost and makes the application actually usable, even on my tired Ti 400.

[robg adds: In addition to Tinkertool, you could also use this hint to add a Quit option to the Finder's menu...]
    •    
  • Currently 1.00 / 5
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  (1 vote cast)
 
[11,478 views]  

Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost | 11 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost
Authored by: vogunaescht on Oct 07, '03 11:10:36AM

How can this be? On my Mac, the Finder doesn't use any CPU time if it doesn't do anything, so It won't speed up VPC if I quit it.
Can you provide any CPU usage measurement to back this statement?
Maybe you have installed some contextual menu items or services that consume CPU time while the finder is running.
To definitely improve speed in VPC close the Virtual PC List window. It constantly updates a small preview of the active virtual machines and this definitely does consume CPU time.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost
Authored by: rhamm on Oct 07, '03 09:11:47PM

Looking at both top and ProcessViewer, the Finder CPU usage is zero. How amazing, it's like that all the time. Therefore, there should be no speed increase.

BUT, there is. I think it is the RAM, as Typhoon14 said. My argument: the increase is really only noticeable when playing games or using Adobe Illustrator or LimeWire, which are all, I believe, very memory-intensive.

Because it is relevant, I have 256mb of the stuff.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Do it without TinkerTool
Authored by: rootpoot on Oct 07, '03 11:47:33AM

In Terminal run osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'



[ Reply to This | # ]
Do it without TinkerTool
Authored by: father2a-f on Oct 08, '03 07:23:18PM
One could also put tell app "Finder" to quit into a new Script Editor window, save it somewhere on your hard drive as an application, and place that in the Dock. One click quit Finder, no typing.

[ Reply to This | # ]
Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost
Authored by: easco on Oct 07, '03 12:36:59PM

You can also add a quit menu item to the finder by using the command line:

defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem true

This accomplishes the same thing as the other hint about adding a quit menu item to the Finder, but doesn't require you to edit the Finder's preferences file directly.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost
Authored by: Typhoon14 on Oct 07, '03 08:42:54PM

The Finder doesn't normally use any CPU when idle, so this shouldn't make any difference (it doesn't on my machine), unless you're very strapped for RAM, in which case you might see some speed boost, as the system has to rely less on virtual memory.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost
Authored by: milomilo on Oct 07, '03 10:03:58PM

You guys aren't seeing the true potential of this hint. Here's what you do:
1) Set your dock to hide automatically.
2) Set a blue sky with clouds as your desktop background.
3) Write a script for quitting the Finder, and put the script in your login items preference pane.
4) Put Virtual PC in your login items preference pane.
5) Go to the genius bar at your local Apple store, complain that there's something wrong with your powerbook, and watch their faces when they turn it on!



[ Reply to This | # ]
Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost
Authored by: diamondsw on Oct 07, '03 10:25:50PM

If it weren't for the menu bar, you might have a good prank. :)



[ Reply to This | # ]
The Hard Drive, Of Course!
Authored by: Enkerli on Oct 08, '03 12:21:24PM

Tried the trick, didn't really notice any significant difference. Then got thinking about the influence of drive speed and restarted from an external LaCie D2 drive, on which Virtual PC already was. Turns out it makes all the difference. VPC is almost useable now on this iBook (Dual USB) 500MHz with 384MB RAM. Who'd have thought?



[ Reply to This | # ]
Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost
Authored by: melving8 on Oct 08, '03 05:25:15PM

Quitting Finder doesn't do anything to my Virtual PC whatsoever. Still slow as molasses. Filing this tip under urban legends.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Quit the Finder to give Virtual PC a speed boost
Authored by: Hopelost on Oct 09, '03 05:31:35PM

I have found that logging in as root and then run Virtual PC speeds it up the most (for me anyway). I guess it's because I'm not loading the 30 other things i usually have running in the background at start up. It helps with some games too. (but it could be just me)



[ Reply to This | # ]