[nycdunz]

i'm not sure if this all in my head or what not... i have a 1gh 17" albook with 2gb ram... and I noticed my system is more responsive when i revert back to the default Aqua Theme.

So does running themes and assigning new icons to the system slow the OS down at all or no?

[Randman]

With 2 GB of ram, you shouldn't have any problems.
Check Activity Monitor and judge for yourself.

[Turnpike]

I'm by no means an expert, but as far as I know, it might take a little more RAM, and that's it. Perhaps longer boot times, but I think the performance hit should be negligible, especially on that machine.

[suthercd]

Create a new user with the Accounts Preference Pane in System Preferences. Log on to that account and see if your performance improves. If so, then you have non-standard items in your regular HOME library that are affecting your normal account. This suggestion assumes you have not added third party add-ons to the folders in /Library. The account could be deleted when the test is completed.

Another test is to re-boot with the shift key down. This will bypass all non-essential startup and items, then login with the shift key down which bypasses non-standard login items.

There is always a debate about add-ons and performance. This way, you make your own determination.

Craig

[nooon]

I'm pretty sure Candybar doesn't cause any slowdowns, since it just replaces icons. But Shapeshifter might, since it hooks on to every process you run and replaces GUI elements.

[Maflynn]

Originally posted by nycdunz:
i'm not sure if this all in my head or what not... i have a 1gh 17" albook with 2gb ram... and I noticed my system is more responsive when i revert back to the default Aqua Theme.

So does running themes and assigning new icons to the system slow the OS down at all or no?

Candybar won't because it just replaces your system icons.

Technically speaking Shapeshifter will, because it adds a level (APE Manager) that is used to theme the system. This is much safer then changing the resources directly, which is kind of like candybar but more dangerious since its not just icons. The amount of overhead imposed by the utility is probably minute, I failed to notice any impact on my g5 or my PB.

Mike

[Millennium]

Technically, there is a very slight slowdown. However, it is so small that you're not likely to notice it unless you're using something with many hundreds of themed GUI elements. Most apps don't use anywhere near enough GUI elements to slow things down for more than a few milliseconds here and there.

[Anubis IV]

As I recall, ShapeeShifter "injects" (don't know if that's the right word for it) its code into the applications at the startup time of the application. What this means is that there is virtually no overhead CPU usage when you're running SS since SS would have already finished injecting the GUI elements into the application, but applications will startup a little bit slower since SS is busy doing its stuff. Shouldn't be noticeable, but it might be on slower systems or something.

Regardless of the technical reasons for why it shouldn't slow down your computer, my system always felt snappier when I didn't have SS (or even APE) installed, so I don't use any APE modules, even though I'd love to theme my computer.

[fisherKing]

ape...
i use four things: shapeshifter, cleardock, mightymouse, detour.
my mac (1.33 12" pb) is DEFINITELY snappier with ape disabled.
(but a lot less fun...)

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Anubis IV:
As I recall, ShapeeShifter "injects" (don't know if that's the right word for it) its code into the applications at the startup time of the application. What this means is that there is virtually no overhead CPU usage when you're running SS since SS would have already finished injecting the GUI elements into the application, but applications will startup a little bit slower since SS is busy doing its stuff.

If the code ShapeShifter injects is slower than the code being replaced, then this is also a kind of overhead which can cause slowdowns. That said, I can't comment on ShapeShifter's code; it may be about the same speed or possibly even faster.

[smeger]

I wrote what I think is a pretty definitive answer to this recently. Here's a link.

The code in the ShapeShifter APE module has been heavily optimized for speed, using Apple's Shark development tool. I'm sure it could still be faster, but it definitely ain't too shabby as-is.

[Judge_Fire]

Originally posted by fisherKing:
ape...
i use four things: shapeshifter, cleardock, mightymouse, detour.
my mac (1.33 12" pb) is DEFINITELY snappier with ape disabled.
(but a lot less fun...)

Mighty Mouse is, IIRC, a CPU hog.

J

[macintologist]

Originally posted by Judge_Fire:
Mighty Mouse is, IIRC, a CPU hog.

J

When you move the mouse cursor, is WindowServ supposed to add another 2-4% of CPU usage or does it only do that with Mighty Mouse? (I have that installed and whenever I move the mouse cursor it adds a bit of CPU overhead)

[smeger]

Originally posted by Judge_Fire:
Mighty Mouse is, IIRC, a CPU hog.

Mighty Mouse should add zero CPU load under normal usage. Running the prefpane will use CPU (it displays animated images).

Using cursor magnification or using an animated arrow cursor will, of course, add CPU load, but it should be extremely minimal unless your cursor is absolutely huge. Extremely minimal means under 1% on the 500MHz iBook I did load testing on a year ago.