How to See What's Running on Mac

How to check what’s running on Mac

To find what's running on your Mac, open the Activity Monitor. You can check all your active processes, including background tasks, memory, and CPU usage. Alternatively, click on the Apple Icon to bring up the Force Quit menu to close running processes.

A note from our experts:

 

We understand how frustrating it is when your Mac slows down due to unnecessary processes draining system resources. Identifying these background tasks can be equally tricky, but MacKeeper’s Memory Cleaner makes it easy. Our tool scans your device for programs that can be removed, quickly freeing up your RAM and boosting speed.

 

Here’s how our Memory Cleaner tool can optimize your system:

1. Download MacKeeper.
2. Open the app and click on the Memory Cleaner tool.
3. Press Open for the tool to scan your Mac.
4. To free up RAM, just press the Clean Memory button.

After clearing the memory on your device, we now recommend you check how to turn off programs running in the background on Mac to prevent reduced speed again.

1. Use Dock to spot active apps

The quickest way to see what is running on your Mac is to check the Dock at the bottom of your screen. From there, you’ll see what apps are open as a dot will show up under the corresponding icons.

Here’s how to check what apps are open on your MacBook:

1. Go to your desktop and look at the Dock at your screen's bottom.
2. Any app that’s currently open will have a small dot beneath its icon.

A hint to remember:

 

While checking your Dock is the quickest way to see what’s running, we’ve noticed it’s not always accurate, especially if you suspect hidden programs are behind your slowdown. In that case, check out our piece on how to run diagnostics on Mac to help dig a little deeper.

2. Check running apps with App Switcher

Aside from checking your Dock, we recommend utilizing a very overlooked MacBook shortcut: an App Switcher. This built-in macOS tool gives you an instant view of your active applications and is handy when managing several apps simultaneously.

Here’s how to activate the App Switcher shortcut:

1. Hold down Command (⌘).
2. Press Tab to open the App Switcher.
3. Once done, you’ll see all your running apps in the center of your screen.

An extra hint from us: 

 

Are you noticing your Mac running slow lately? If your device is lagging, our supporting blog covers the most common causes to look out for and shares our top tips to free up RAM and get your device back up to speed.

3. Open Activity Monitor for all processes

To get a complete view of everything that’s running on your device, our number one recommendation is to make Activity Monitor your go-to tool. It can dig for background tasks and find hidden system processes–perfect for helping you track high CPU programs eating at your RAM.

Below, we’ll show you how to use Activity Monitor to check all your processes:

1. In Finder, go to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.
2. From here, you can switch between CPU and Memory to track which processes are demanding the most Mac resources.

4. Use Force Quit to view and close apps

We have another troubleshooting method you can try if you’re looking to check which apps are open, specifically for quitting them. The Force Quit pop-up menu can help you close apps that you might not have realized are still running.

Here are our steps to help you bring up the Force Quit menu to close apps:

1. Click on the Apple Icon.
2. Press Force Quit.
3. You can select your unused apps in the table and press Force Quit.

5. Track CPU-heavy processes in Activity Monitor

We’ve shown you how to open Activity Monitor to help you find what’s running on your Mac. Now, to track your CPU usage, we recommend using the sorting feature—this will help you see which programs are putting the most strain on your device.

Here’s how to track CPU-heavy processes in Activity Monitor:

1. Open your Activity Monitor app.
2. Click on the CPU tab option.
3. Then press on %CPU to automatically sort your processes to the most to least demanding.

6. Use Terminal to list system processes

For all you tech-savvy users, we have one more way you can check what’s running on your Mac—Terminal. This can be user to view all system processes, including those hidden deep within your device.

You can follow our steps below to help you check your processes in Terminal:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type top -o cpu to sort by CPU usage.
3. Type top -o size to sort by Memory.

A helping hand from the MacKeeper team: 

 

While Terminal is a reliable way to track what’s running on your Mac, it can feel overwhelming if you’ve never used it before. But don’t fret—our blog article will show you how to open Terminal on Mac to help you get familiar with the app in no time.

Optimizing your Mac’s speed with MacKeeper’s help

Finding out what's running on your Mac is crucial for preserving its performance–tracking your CPU usage is one of the best ways to track your programs. You can quit any demanding processes in Activity Monitor or simply force quit applications to stop unnecessary processes from slowing down your system.

For an even smoother experience, you can turn to MacKeeper’s Memory Cleaner, and our tool will help you clean up redundant processes and free up valuable resources. Finally, your MacBook will be running at its best in no time.