Useful macOS defaults: Activity Monitor

com.apple.ActivityMonitor controls how Activity Monitor displays system information.

After changing these, quit and reopen Activity Monitor.

Show all processes

By default, Activity Monitor shows only your own processes. To show every process on the system:

defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor ShowCategory -int 100

Values:

• 100 = all processes
• 101 = all processes, hierarchically (shows parent-child relationships)
• 102 = my processes
• 103 = system processes
• 104 = other user processes
• 105 = active processes
• 106 = inactive processes
• 107 = windowed processes

Set the Dock icon to show CPU usage

The Activity Monitor Dock icon can show a live graph. Set what it displays:

defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor IconType -int 5

Values:

• 0 = application icon (the default)
• 2 = network usage
• 3 = disk activity
• 5 = CPU usage
• 6 = CPU history (shows all cores)

The CPU history option is popular. It turns the Dock icon into a small live CPU graph showing each core.

Set the update frequency

How often Activity Monitor refreshes its data:

defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor UpdatePeriod -int 1

Values:

• 1 = very often (every second)
• 2 = often (every two seconds)
• 5 = normally (every five seconds)

More frequent updates use slightly more CPU.

Open a specific tab by default

Set which tab Activity Monitor shows when it opens:

defaults write com.apple.ActivityMonitor SelectedTab -int 0

Values:

• 0 = CPU
• 1 = Memory
• 2 = Energy
• 3 = Disk
• 4 = Network
• 5 = Cache (if Content Caching is turned on)

Read all current Activity Monitor settings

defaults read com.apple.ActivityMonitor

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