How to Find Installed Apps on My Mac Launchpad. Click the 'Launchpad' icon located in the Dock. Swipe from left to right until you see the app you want to. Applications Folder. Click the 'Finder' icon in the Dock. Select 'Applications' from the Favorites section in the Finder. Spotlight Search. Use Instagram for Mac Through Third-party Apps. The best part of using a Mac is that there are great third-party apps available for various services. In this case, you can use Instagram for Mac using a standalone app with all the necessary features. So without further ado, let’s see what new features third-party apps bring to the table.

1. If you click “Manage search engines” you can choose other search engines as well, such as goto.com or duckduckgo.com. Additionally, if you set Google as your default search engine, you can enable voice search; in doing so, you can talk to your Mac and say “Ok Google” to start a voice search.
2. You can also search within documents like PDFs to find phrases or words important to you. Here, we’ll show you how to search on Mac, the right way to Spotlight search Mac computers, and surface some great apps you may prefer to using Apple’s built-in services. Best ways to search on Mac. Your Mac has become very adept at search.

We tend to think of the term ‘search’ as a web-only initiative, but your Mac can handle searches, too! Both Spotlight and Finder are excellent resources, and learning the proper ways to use search within those macOS features can help you discover what you’re looking for much faster.

You can also search within documents like PDFs to find phrases or words important to you. Here, we’ll show you how to search on Mac, the right way to Spotlight search Mac computers, and surface some great apps you may prefer to using Apple’s built-in services.

Best ways to search on Mac

Your Mac has become very adept at search. In document viewers, Finder, and even Spotlight, you can likely find what you’re looking for without too much effort. Over time, Apple has woven search into a ton of its packaged apps, and made Spotlight search much better at finding what you need in short order.

Spotlight search on Mac

Spotlight is your Mac’s system-wide search bar. It can search, files, folders, documents, events, reminders, email, the web, and your browser history or bookmarks. Here’s how to Spotlight search on your Mac:

1. In your Mac menu bar, select the magnifying glass icon (You can also type Command-Space to bring up Spotlight search anywhere on your Mac)
2. Enter your search criteria

Instead of thinking about how to search for a word on Mac, you can also ask Siri to find your files and folders by saying what you're looking for using natural language. For example, 'Show me my New York photos' will bring up all photos the Photos app shows were in a ‘New york’ folder, or when the photo geolocation shows it was taken in New York. To use Siri, click the Siri icon in your menu bar.

How to Search with Finder

Finder, like Spotlight, is a simple way to find items, but is also a bit more direct for discovering files and folders. The tool also lets you organize folders and files according to your preferences. You can open the Finder by clicking on the Finder icon in your Mac’s Dock.

When it comes to finding what you're looking for, the Finder works in exactly the same way as Spotlight. All of the search narrowing tips that we talked about above can also be applied here. Here’s how to search using Finder:

1. On your Mac’s Dock, open Finder (it’s often on the far left side of the Dock)
2. In the upper right hand corner of the Finder window, enter your search term

That’s all you need to do. Finder will automatically show you all the files associated with your search. You can also toggle Finder to search your entire Mac, a designated folder you have selected, or all shared items.

A better option for your searches may be Lacona. Like Siri, the app focuses on natural language to help you find things. It’s a great app for those who want to talk to their computer rather than type – but that’s not all Lacona is great at.

Google Search App Mac

Plainly put, Lacona is just more powerful that your mac’s search, and a lot more powerful. We enjoy its direct method for search; when you query Lacona to find something, it surfaces options for more direct searching in some situations. As you can see below, Lacona allows you to search many popular websites directly.

You can customize Lacona with IFTTT commands, and it has a veritable ton of keyboard shortcuts. You can also open files directly from Lacona after a search, create reminders or schedule events using natural language, do simple math, get definitions for words, translate certain phrases, and move or copy files. Lacona is an incredible Spotlight replacement.

How to Search Messages on Mac

Have you ever thought about a message you sent, and wondered “how to search through iMessage on Mac?” It’s a fairly common question; we may have shared info about an event with someone, or need to bring up details about a conversation. If you’re a dedicated iMessages user, you’ll want to know how to search the Messages app on your Mac. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the Messages app on your Mac
2. On the left side, above all conversations, enter your search term
3. Press enter

This will search through your iMessage conversations for the term you enter. Any active conversation with the search term will be highlighted, and you’ll be able to click on those conversations to see highlighted text. Keep in mind searching through the Messages app limits your search to iMessage conversations.

How to search for a word on Mac

Searching for words on your Mac is the same process as searching for anything else. You can open Spotlight, search in Finder, or use Lacona to search your Mac. Knowing how to find word on Mac devices is universal to search.

But you can use a few keyboard shortcuts to make it easier. The most direct shortcut is Command + F, which opens Finder and searches your entire Mac for a word you enter. It’s great for those times you know the name of a document, but aren’t sure where it’s located.

You can also use metadata attributes to narrow your search. Here are a few metadata attribute tips, courtesy of Apple Support:

• trip kind:document searches for the word “trip” in documents only.
• author:tom searches for all items written by Tom.
• kind:imagescreated:8/16/19 searches for images created on a specific date.
• kind:musicby:“glenn miller” searches for music by Glenn Miller.
• modified:<=7/29/19 searches for items modified on or before a specific date.

How to search for lost files and folders with Disk Drill

If you search your Mac and still aren’t finding what you need, there are a few more things to try.

You can try searching documents you know have the keyword. If you were searching for phrases in a large document, try opening that document in the Preview app and using its search function. This is how to search a document on a Mac directly, and its search field can be found in the top right corner of the Preview window.

There’s also email search, which can sometimes be a more direct way to discover keyphrases in emails.

But what happens if the file that you're looking for doesn't show up in any of your searches? It could be that you've overwritten the file or deleted it by mistake.If this is the case, try not to panic. Take deep breaths. We're going to sort this.

Now, go and download Disk Drill. Disk Drill is the most powerful data recovery app available for Mac, and it's the tool that's going to return your lost files in five simple steps.

1. Launch Disk Drill
2. Select the drive where your lost file was previously saved and hit Recover
3. Once Disk Drill has finished its scan, find the file that you want to recover (you can do this by scrolling through the list or by entering the file name in the search bar) and select it
4. Verify the file
5. Select a location for your recovered file from the menu bar and hit Recover

How To Search App Store On Macbook Pro

Like magic, your files will be back on your hard drive and available in search queries.

The more you use your Mac to download files, create documents, and upload photos and media, the harder it becomes to locate files and folders using the simple scroll features and the easier it becomes to accidentally delete things that you want to keep.

Conclusion

Finding files on your Mac has never been simpler. Like so many Apple features, Spotlight and Finder search are great, but could be a lot better. That’s why we prefer Lacona. It’s a far better search tool than Spotlight, and its low learning curve will have you feeling like a power user in no time.

We also like that Disk Drill and Lacona are free as part of a seven day trial of Setapp, an incredible suite of productivity apps for your Mac. Alongside Lacona and Disk Drill, you’ll get unlimited access to over 175 additional apps that round out the Setapp catalog ranging just about every category you can think of.

When your free trial is over, Setapp is only $9.99 per month for continuous access to its incredible suite of apps. Families will really like Setapp’s $19.99 per month family plan, which grants full access to the entire Setapp catalog for up to four unique Macs. What are you waiting for? Give Setapp a try today!

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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All-mighty Mac system monitor

When your Mac slows down or starts behaving erratically, chances are it's because an application that's running, perhaps in the background, is misbehaving. And if it's not an application that's causing the problem, it will almost certainly be a process associated with macOS or an ancillary service.

Solving this problem is usually as simple as killing the process, but in order to do that you need to identify which one.Here's a comprehensive guide on how to view and kill processes on your Mac.

Best task killers for Mac

Try the best tools that help you find and kill processes hampering your Mac's performance.

How to show which processes consume a lot of memory

The easiest way to view all active processes running on your Mac is to launch Activity Monitor from your Applications folder. In the default CPU tab, you can see how much processing power every process takes, ranked by the most consuming. And if you switch to the Memory tab, you will see the same list ranked by the amount of used up RAM.

For more immediate and elaborate information on how your computer resources are consumed, use iStat Menus, which handily lives in your menu bar and, in its MEM table, shows you applications and processes that are consuming more than their fair share of RAM in real time.

How to kill process using Activity Monitor

1. Launch Activity Monitor.
   The easiest way to launch Activity Monitor is to press Command and spacebar to call up Spotlight, then start typing Activity Monitor. When it appears in Spotlight, hit Return to launch it. Alternatively, go to Utilities in the Applications folder and double-click on its icon. Or open Activity Monitor in one click through iStat Menus app.
2. View and filter tasks.
   You'll notice there are five tabs across the top of the Activity Monitor window: CPU, Energy, Memory, Disk, and Network. Clicking on any of those tabs organizes processes according to the percentage of the resource they are using. So, clicking on CPU lists tasks in the order of how much CPU capacity they're using. By default, processes are ordered starting with the one that's consuming the most of the resource at the top, so you can quickly see where problems are occurring or likely to occur. To flip the order, so that processes consuming the least of the resource are at the top, click the arrow next to Memory or CPU above the list of processes.
   
3. Kill problematic processes.
   When you identify a process that's causing a problem, either because it's hogging lots of CPU cycles or memory, or because it's highlighted in the Activity Monitor as having crashed, you need to kill it. To do that, click on the process first and then on the X in the Activity Monitor toolbar. The process will quit and free up the resources it was taking up. If it's a critical process, it will restart. If it's an application, it will remain shut down.

Activity Monitor alternatives

Get an advanced system monitor for macOS – an improved alternative to the default program.

How to shut down processes using Terminal

1. Launch Terminal. Press Command and spacebar to pull up Spotlight then start typing Terminal. When the Terminal app appears in Spotlight, tap Return to launch it. Alternatively, navigate to the Utilities folder in Applications and double-click Terminal.
2. View processes. When Terminal has launched, type 'top' into the Terminal window. You'll see a list of currently running processes. At the top of the list is an overview of the processes that are running and the resources they're consuming.
3. Kill an unwanted process. When you identify a process that's causing a problem or consuming too many resources, take note of the number in the PID column next to the name of the process. To kill the process, type 'kill -9' followed by the PID number. Press Enter. The problem process will now quit.

How to prevent problematic processes

You can pretty much avoid issues altogether by being a little bit proactive in hunting down the common culprits. Here, iStat Menus will help you identify which applications or processes are consuming finite resources, such as CPU and RAM.

Then, you can use CleanMyMac maintenance routines that, when run regularly, will keep you Mac running smoothly. Here's how to do that:

1. Launch Setapp and search for CleanMyMac.
2. Find the maintenance scripts. Under the Speed section in the left sidebar, click on Maintenance. You will see a list of tasks that CleanMyMac would suggest you to perform to optimize your Mac. You should try to run them all, but the one especially important for us is under Run Maintenance Scripts.
3. Run the maintenance scripts. Click on the checkbox next to Run Maintenance Scripts and then click Run. Alternatively, choose another specific maintenance script such as Speed Up Mail or Reindex Spotlight and click Run. When it's finished, click Select Tasks to return to the list of maintenance tasks.

How To Search Installed App In Mac

Run other tasks, as necessary. If you're having problems with Mail, repeat step 3, but this time click the checkbox next to Speed Up Mail. Likewise, if Spotlight is running slowly, run the Reindex Spotlight task.

How to kill a background process

To kill a background process, use Activity Monitor. While the steps are the same as described in the 'How to kill a running process using Activity Monitor' section above, the key difference is that background processes often have obscure names that don't clearly describe what they do.

Be careful when killing a background process and, if not sure, leave it alone or search online for its exact role in your system. Otherwise, you might risk causes problems for your macOS. Generally, background processes don't tend to consume significant RAM or CPU cycles, so if you spot one that does, it has probably got into trouble. Kill it using the X in the Activity Monitor toolbar.

How to easily remove startup items

How To Search For An App On Macbook Pro

One common cause of Macs running slowly or having problems is items that launch automatically at startup. These could be helper apps for something like iTunes or just complete apps in their own right. They are also frequently apps you once used but no longer need.

To review the apps and helpers that startup when you log in

1. Launch System Preferences from the Apple menu and click on the Users & Groups pane.
2. Click the padlock and type in your password.
3. Then select your username in the left panel and click the Login Items tab.
4. Look through all the login items that correspond to apps you no longer use and then click the minus button. The app will no longer start up automatically when you log in.

How to Force Quit an application that's not responding

If you see the dreaded spinning beachball, or an app just won't do anything, you should force quit it.

There are several ways to force quit an unresponsive application:

1. Press Command-Alt-Esc and click on the application in the window that opens. Press Force Quit
2. Control-click or right-click on the application's icon in the Dock and choose Force Quit
3. Launch Activity Monitor, locate the application and press the 'x' in the toolbar
4. Locate the process in Activity monitor, look for the entry in the PID column and launch Terminal. Type 'kill -9' followed by the PID number. Press Enter

Fix crashing apps with Spindump

While Force Quit will fix the problem, it’s a temporary solution. If you’re determined to identify the source of crashing apps and prevent them from happening, use Spindump on Mac. It’s a hang reporting tool that alerts you about the crash and helps share the details with the app developer.

Whenever the app crashes, it will trigger Spindump and send the information to Apple or the app developer. Not only does it help you understand what just happened, but it also helps the developer track the conditions of app misbehavior — and fix it accordingly. A win-win.

How to create a Spindump file on Mac

1. Launch Activity Monitor via Applications > Utilities
2. Pick the app for which you want to create a Spindump file, then click on the Settings icon
3. Select Spindump or Run Spindump
4. Wait a few seconds for the file to generate
5. Click Save.

Reset a problematic app

There's one more thing you can try if an app keeps running slowly or crashing – reset it. Thanks to CleanMyMac, resetting an app is easy. Here's what you need to do:

1. Locate the uninstaller. In the left hand sidebar of CleanMyMac, click on Uninstaller under Applications.
2. Find the app that's causing a problem. Scroll through the list of apps until you find the one that's been crashing or running slowly. Click on it to highlight.
3. Reset the app. With the app highlighted, you'll see all the files associated with it in the right-hand window. Click Application Reset at the top of the window and all the files, except the main application file, will be selected.
4. Click Uninstall. All the selected files will be trashed, effectively resetting the application to its default state. When you launch it the next time, it will behave as if it has just been installed — so you'll need to recreate any custom settings or preferences.

If resetting the app doesn't work, the final resort should be to uninstall the app completely and reinstall it. To do that, click Complete Uninstallation in the same menu instead of Application Reset.

As you can see there are lots of different ways and apps that help you view and kill processes in macOS. iStat Menus is a great way to passively monitor which processes are causing problems, so you can launch Activity Monitor and quit them. And running CleanMyMac's maintenance scripts regularly prevents problems occurring in the first place. Best of all, all these apps are available to try for free on Setapp, along with over 200 high-quality macOS apps. So check your Mac for problematic processes now and see what you find.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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