Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Newmacer2

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 14, 2009
216
84
Denver Colorado
My iMac has become extremely slow. It was suggested that I look at my Activity Monitor to see what's running in the background. Only problem is I can't find the Activity Monitor. I even used "spotlight search" and nothing was found. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
The Activity Monitor app is in the /Applications/Utilities folder.
Just to make sure you are looking in the correct folder - you would also see Airport Utility, Keychain Access, and Audio MIDI Setup, just to name a few random apps that will be in the Utilities folder.

If you have moved Activity Monitor to another folder - does Spotlight find other files? Try some other files that you know exist on the drive. If Spotlight is not working, you can try resetting the search database: Open the Spotlight pref pane, and add your hard drive to the Privacy tab. That will remove the database. After a few seconds, remove your hard drive from that Privacy tab. Spotlight will create a new database, which will take a few minutes, perhaps up to an hour.

If Activity Monitor is completely gone, you can get it back by reinstalling OS X.
 
The Activity Monitor app is in the /Applications/Utilities folder.
Just to make sure you are looking in the correct folder - you would also see Airport Utility, Keychain Access, and Audio MIDI Setup, just to name a few random apps that will be in the Utilities folder.

If you have moved Activity Monitor to another folder - does Spotlight find other files? Try some other files that you know exist on the drive. If Spotlight is not working, you can try resetting the search database: Open the Spotlight pref pane, and add your hard drive to the Privacy tab. That will remove the database. After a few seconds, remove your hard drive from that Privacy tab. Spotlight will create a new database, which will take a few minutes, perhaps up to an hour.

If Activity Monitor is completely gone, you can get it back by reinstalling OS X.

I found it! For some reason Applications was not checked in Spotlight's list of searches. I never unchecked it. Thanks so much.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.