How can one user be faster than the other?

Question

On our 10.6.8 Mac Mini Late 2009 Edition, we have 4 users, 3 of which are in regular use. One is mine, let's call it 'a'. The second one is someone else's, let's call it 'b'. The third one we both use, let's call it 'c'. a and c have administrator rights. The unused is the owner.

So, the 'a' account is kind of slow sometimes, but it's what you'd expect after almost 5 years of usage. But here's the deal. 'b' and 'c' often behave much slower than that (takes 2-5 minutes to complete login). Sometimes they're as fast as 'a', but that's seldom.

So yeah, whaddya think about this? Why does this happen? And if you know why, how can I fix it?

Answer 1

Check your login items. Have a look in System Preferences->Users & Groups->Login Items, and delete anything you don't need starting at login. Also try cleaning up your Desktop, so the computer doesn't have to load all those little tiny images when it's busy trying to do other things. Also check if there are any launch agents running at login. (Look in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ for launch agents specific to your user. To find this folder, press Shift-Command-G, and enter the above path.) You'll see things like com.skype.c2c_service.plist. You should be able to work out whether they belong to apps that you want starting at login. (If not, delete the files.)