How Many Apps Are Open On Your Mac Right Now?

I got a call from Alex this morning with an urgent question. “Kate, tell me what’s running on your Mac right now? Everything.”

She asks questions like that these days. It’s new baby hormones, I guess. I rattled off the usual suspects and let it go at that.

Then, I noticed a few other applications I have running but didnt’ notice. Hmmmm. I counted again. What surprised me was how many Mac applications I had open and running at the same time.

Check your Mac now. What’s open and running and likely to be used today? What you have open and running probably falls into three or four categories.

Basic Mac Applications
These are the ones that I open as soon as my Mac boots up. Safari. Entourage. Fireworks. Word. iCal. Those are quickly followed by iChat or Skype, sometimes AddressBook, and often Dictionary.

If I’m busy on a project I may bring up Firefox or Photoshop, depending on what has to be done that day.

I’m in to using iGTD and Circus Ponies Notebook to manage my projects and collect details, so those get opened after I check email. Oh, and NetNewsWire, because I use that to check news and other web sites before actually starting to do any work.

Hidden Mac Utilities
I forgot to count these when I talked with Alexis on the phone. These are the little tool bar utilities or anything else that’s open and running on the Mac, even if in the background.

First on the list Little Snitch to see which Mac applications or sites are phoning home. I have PTH Pasteboard running, and my launcher of choice is DragThing.

Also opening when the Mac boots up is Dragster, Dashboard Kickstart, and WeatherPop. The ChronoSync scheduler is also running. This list doesn’t include the Mac OS X utilities hiding in the background.

That’s almost 18 open and running applications and utilities and doesn’t include Dashboard Widgets. But wait. There’s more.

Applications Used Daily
So, I looked over DragThing to see what else I will have up and running by the end of the day. Hold on. The Mac’s RAM is about to get crowded.

Can you say iLife? I don’t open them until later in the day, but hardly a work day goes by that I don’t open iTunes and iPhoto. Ditto for Word and Excel from Microsoft Office. I’m always checking a password or login ID and that means that Steel gets open during the day.

Someone always send me a PDF and my preference is Apple’s Preview in OS X. I use PowerPoint but have begun doing more in Keynote and Pages. Recently I’ve been working with CSS Edit and TextMate, though not always every day. But, each day I will use FreeRuler, TextEdit, and—sorry, but it’s true—Stickies.

What’s the total now? Well over two dozen Mac applications and utilities can be open and running on my Mac at any time during the day. That surprised me.

Take a quick look at your Mac right now. What’s running or will be running before the day ends? Talk Back to us and share your list with other Mac360 readers in the Comment section below.

Wait. I forgot SpamSieve. That’s running, too. See? These things add up.