Reset Launch Services for a snappier Mac

After a lot of Googling, I finally found this link. The path to lsregisterhas changed a bit in Mountain Lion, so this is the command I ended up using:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -r

My development machine immediately felt like it was running at normal speed (I refuse to say snappy until they update the Mac Pros.) And, of course, as soon as I figured that out, I found that someone smarter had beaten me to it.

So how did this happen? In looking at the documentation for the Launch Services database, there is a lot of information that’s collected when applications are first launched. As developers, we launch applications all fricken’ day. And we also know that pounding on a database is the best way to break it.

So, the next time you’re seeing general slowness on your Mac, don’t forget to give Launch Services a kick in the pants. Guaranteed to be more effective than zapping your PRAM.