Getting started with iStat Menus

Thanks for spending some time to get more familiar with iStat Menus. iStat Menus is set of 8 separate and highly configurable menu extras that let you know exactly what’s going on inside your Mac.

Enabling and disabling menu extras

Each menu extra can be enabled or disabled separately. This allows you to use any combination of menu extras you desire, in any order you desire.

If you’re not seeing any of iStat Menu’s menu extras, it’s likely you don’t have any enabled. To enable a menu extra, open System Preferences > iStat Menus, click on the relevant tab and check the “Monitor Usage” check box.

Reordering menu extras

Menu extras can be reordered by holding down the Command key and dragging to reorder. Dragging a menu extra out of the menubar will remove it. This works for most third party menu extras and all Apple menu extras. Don’t thank us for adding this feature, it’s been part of Mac OS X for a while.

Changing the layout and design

Most of the menu extras have several different items within them that can be shown or hidden. For example, the CPU extra can show a pie chart, a graph, a history graph, a percentage as text and a “CPU” label.

To add items, drag them from Inactive Items to Active Items. To remove items, drag them from Active Items to Inactive Items.

Some items also have options. Simply click on the item to view them. Clicking on the item again will hide them.

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