my mac laptop seems to be running slower for some reason. can anyone give me good sites for antivirus for macs

Question

some of the applications on my mac just suddenly sometimes shuts down. like safari, expecially when i go to "bigger" websites, and AIM.

just about everything on my mac is slow now... it takes me forever for something to open after i double click it.

i dunno much about computers really. can anyone give me sites or any advice on how i should handle my problem?

thanks

Answer 1

Try this laptop speedup tool:
http://boost-computer-performance.info
It works very well.

Answer 2

I also doubt you have a virus although it is a remote possibility. Make that number 10 on your list of things to do to solve this problem. If you can explain what is a "bigger" web site, that could help. Try using Firefox with "NoScripts" installed for web browsing. That will help prevent unexpected weirdness from websites. You will have to get used to the options for NoScripts but it is worth it. If you have already gotten a lot of malware from cross-scripting, this may be like closing the gate after the horses have run away. Sometimes the only solution to malware invasion is backup important files and erase the drive. But make that number 11 on your list.

Number 1: Empty the trash. Some people forget to do this for months at a stretch.

Number 2: Run a test of the hard drive. To do this, you must use the install DVD (or CD) that came with your Mac or the newer version of full install DVD if you have bought an upgrade. Put that disk in the drive and restart while holding the "C" key. When it is fully booted to the installer, don't install anything. I say that because you may be tempted but don't do it. Click on the "Installer" or "Utilities" menu at the top and open Disk Utility. Then click on the "First Aid" tab, select the hard drive and click "Repair disk". At the end it should say "Appears to be OK". If that's not what it says, run the repair again. Then quit Disk Utility, quit the installer and restart. Hold the mouse button or the clicking area of the scrollpad at startup to make the disk eject.

Number 3: If that is not the main cause of slowness, check the amount of empty space on the drive. Just click once on the drive icon and go to File > Get Info. The available space should be at least 2 GB for basic system use. It should be even more for mounting large disk images and other intense tasks. If the available space is quite small (say, 500 MB or less) you should find a way to backup some big files (music, photos, videos) and erase some of them. Then empty the trash. Remember, the trash is just a special type of folder and it doesn't really take any files off the drive until you empty it.

Number 4: If that still leaves the system crawling along, create a new admin user, logout and login as the new user. If the system suddenly gets supercharged, the old user account has some wacked out software installed. In that case, you may be able to get it back to normal. Login to the old user and drag the user's Library folder (NOT the main Library folder that is at the root level of the hard drive) out to the desktop and restart. If that solves the problem, you may have to reinstall some programs for them to work correctly. But don't reinstall any suspicious downloads. Those types are the ones likely to have gotten you into this mess.

Answer 3

The slowing down of your Mac has nothing to do with virus.....there are none yet.
All you need to do is run some maintenance on your Mac. You may or may not need to download 3rd party software. Read Performance and Maintaining Mac OS X from here along with some other tips.
http://thexlab.com/faqs/faqs.html

Answer 4

Symantec does make a Mac version of their antivirus software.