Monitor Apple Mac hardware and software with MiniUsage menu bar tool

What is going on under the surface of the Mac's graphical interface? Is it working hard or idling, downloading or uploading, hot or cool? Monitor the hardware and software with MiniUsage.

Sometimes the Mac runs more slowly than usual. Sometimes the battery drains faster than it should do. Sometimes the Mac runs hot or the fan seems to be blowing extra hard.

A utility to monitor the hardware can tell you when components are being worked excessively hard or when they are idling under minimal load. You might want to see what is using all the processing power, check the CPU temperature, see how many times a MacBook battery has been charged, and so on. Sometimes you want to download a big file, but keep an eye on the download speed without having Safari on the screen.

All these items and more can be monitored using a menu bar utility called MiniUsage.

This free utility can be found in the Mac App Store, but the version there is v1.5 with a last updated date of 2012. Forget it, it is so out of date you don't want it. The Mac App Store does not always have the latest or the best software and if you go to the developer’s website there is sometimes a better or more recent version, as can be seen with MiniUsage. Direct from the developer is a version that was updated less than a year ago and is bang up to date.

Why use MiniUsage?

• Some people are curious about how the Mac works and this shows what happens behind the scenes
• Detect problems like overheating by monitoring the temperature inside the Mac
• Detect problems with software or macOS and see when apps are using excessive CPU or RAM
• Show network activity like internet downloads in the menu bar

Install MiniUsage

Download MiniUsage from the website and then open the Downloads folder on the Mac. Double click MiniUsage.dmg to open the archive and then drag the MiniUsage folder to the Applications folder. Go into Applications/MiniUsage and double click MiniUsage.app.

Drag this to the Applications folder

Security settings on the Mac do not allow apps from outside of the Mac App Store to be run and you will probably see a message like this.

Software from unidentified developers are blocked

This message is just for your information. In this case, the app is fine, so go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Security and Privacy, then under Allow apps downloaded from, choose Open Anyway.

Unblock an app in macOS

A new message appears and this time you can run the app. You won't see any of these messages again and next time MiniUsage just runs when it is clicked. There is an option in MiniUsage preferences for it to automatically start when you log in to your Mac.

Monitor the Mac with MiniUsage

When MiniUsage is run, it adds an extra item to the menu bar at the top of the screen. You can choose what information this item displays and in the screenshot it is showing internet downloads, but it could show CPU activity or other things.

Click it and a menu is displayed that contains a lot of interesting information about the hardware and software. The first section on the menu shows the apps that are using the processor the most. If your Mac is running slowly you can display this menu and see which apps are responsible for hogging all the processor time. In the screen shot this Mac is idling and nothing is using the processor significantly. Start up a few apps and take a fresh look at this menu to see the load the CPU is under.

MiniUsage menu bar hardware/software monitor

The second section of the menu shows a collection of useful statistics such as the CPU average load, the CPU temperature, fan speed, system memory and more. There is too much to show here, so let's look at just a couple of items.

Show energy consumption, CPU activity and more

When the CPU is working hard, the temperature will rise and the fan will increase its speed in an effort to keep the system cool. Too high a temperature can cause stability problems or even processor failure. How high is too high? It varies with the CPU and some can run reliably at up to 100 C. (Choose Fahrenheight or Celcius in Preferences.)

How hard is the Mac's fan working?

The network in and out is the amount of data that is being transmitted over the network. If the Mac is connected only to the internet and not a networked disk, then the network in and out figures correspond to the internet download and upload speeds. It can be useful to keep an eye on the download speed when you are downloading big files because it shows the quality of the internet connection. A low figure can indicated a poor internet connection or an overloaded server.

The battery charge percentage is also displayed. All these items have sub-menus that display additional information. For example, the Battery submenu shows the cycle count (number of times the battery has been charged), voltage and amperage. Keep an eye on the cycle count because the average life is 1,000 cycles. Some batteries last longer than average and it's not a fixed number.

Desktop monitors

Show floating monitors on the desktop

Some live charts are available and can be added to the desktop so you can keep your eye on what is happening inside the Mac. They float on top of other windows, but can be made semi or even fully transparent. The can be tucked in a corner of the screen out of the way.

MiniUsage is a great tool, although I did experience the odd glitch, but nothing to worry about. One of the live charts didn't show anything for example. If something does not show, it could be because that Mac model does not support that monitor.

MiniUsage is recommended.

If you like this menu bar utility, you should check out Bandwidth+.

Alternative hardware monitors

• iStat Menus: This is even more powerful than MiniUsage and it is one of the best hardware and software monitoring tools for the Mac. It costs $14.39
• Activity Monitor: This is bundled with macOS and is in the Utilities folder. It is a great utility, but you do need to keep the app open on the desktop
• XRG: A free open source hardware monitor that was updated last for the sensors in 2018 Macs. It sits on the desktop and shows CPU, memory, disk, network usage and so on