CompTIA Tech+ (FC0-U71)Applications and SoftwareEasy
A technician is performing routine maintenance on a macOS computer. The user reports that the computer has been running slowly, and they often see the 'spinning beach ball' cursor. The technician wants to check the current memory usage and identify any applications consuming excessive resources. Which macOS utility should the technician use?
- AConsole
- BActivity Monitor
- CDisk Utility
- DSystem Information
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Activity Monitor
Activity Monitor is the macOS equivalent of Windows Task Manager. It allows technicians to view and manage running processes, monitor CPU, memory, energy, disk, and network usage, and identify resource-intensive applications.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Console views system logs, which can help diagnose issues but doesn't directly show real-time resource consumption of applications.
- C. Disk Utility manages disks and volumes (formatting, partitioning, repairing), not active processes or memory.
- D. System Information provides detailed hardware and software specifications, not real-time process monitoring.
macOS Activity Monitor
A macOS utility that displays information about processes running on the system, including CPU, memory, energy, disk, and network usage.
- Analogous to Windows Task Manager.
- Helps identify resource-intensive applications.
- Allows termination of unresponsive processes.
- Provides real-time system performance data.
Memory trick: Activity Monitor shows the Mac's busy activities and helps find the culprits.