Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: Plug & Play Hardware RAID up to 8.0TB. High Performance, Data Redundant Solutions. FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB2, or eSATA. Hot Swappable Bays, Data Rates over 200MB/s. Click here

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

A Faster Loading Classic Environment

Dan Knight - 2002.02.05

If you've been using Macs for some time, odds are you've got lots of files in your classic System Folder that don't work or aren't necessary when using Classic mode in Mac OS X. Here's how to deal with that - and get Classic to boot a bit faster at the same time.

Booting in OS 9.x, open the Extensions Manager control panel and create a copy of your current configuration. Name it something like "Mac OS X" as a reminder that you want to use this set of control panels, extensions, and startup items when running Classic mode on X.

Go through the list two or three times. For instance, if you have iTunes under X, you probably won't be needing it in classic mode, so you could disable all the extensions related to iTunes. The same goes for unnecessary drivers and bits of software that won't run in Classic mode. For instance, I've never used IR on my TiBook, so there's no point loading it in Classic.

Go through the list two or three times - once sorted by name, once sorted by

When you're done, you might want to go back to your regular OS 9.x setup and turn off some of the drivers, extensions, etc. that you just know you'll never use. Go through the list a couple times - there's a lot there.

When you're ready to switch to X, select your OS X set in the extensions manager, select OS X in the startup disk control panel, and restart your computer. You'll be running Classic with a trimmer set of software, so Classic will load a bit faster.

Oops, I Forgot to Switch

When running the classic Mac OS all by itself, you can choose a software set from the Extensions Manager by holding the space bar at startup. That doesn't work in Classic mode under OS X; X has a different way of doing things.

Open your System Preferences and click on the Classic icon. It should be in the lower left corner, as illustrated below.

When the Classic panel opens, click on the Advanced tab to view your startup options. Here you can tell OS X to always open the extensions manager when loading the Classic environment - sort of.

Unfortunately, as least through OS X v10.1.2, this setting is only effective when you launch the Classic environment from the Classic control panel. If you have Classic set to launch automatically, it will do so using whatever set of extensions and control panels was active the last time you used OS 9.x.

It would be nice if Apple or some independent programmer could change this behavior to either force the Classic environment to always use a preselected set of extensions or to open the Extensions Manager at every Classic launch so the user can select the appropriate set.

On the flip side, it would be nice if a complementary extension running under OS 9.x could automatically restore your most commonly used set of extensions and control panels.

Recent X-Basics Columns

Internet sharing a breeze in OS X, 04.07. Another OS X advantage -- sharing an Internet connection is very easy.
Using Jaguar's Finder for FTP, 02.11. You don't need any special software to download files via FTP; it's already built into Jaguar.
X Files, 07.24. How the Home folder in Mac OS X helps you better organize your work.
More in the X-Basics index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.