Mac: Dock Taking Up 100% CPU After 10.6.8 Update

Are you one of the lucky ones that upgraded your OSX software from 10.6.x to 10.6.8 and noticed a decrease in battery life, only to realize that your Dock application is eating up 100% of your CPU? If you have Parallels Desktop installed, then I’ve been able to resolve the issue by researching the issue online and process of elimination. The issue is actually with Parallels Desktop, and the issue seems to have crept up after the 10.6.8 update from Apple.

Reproducing The Issue

To reproduce the issue, all you need to do is open Activity Monitor and make note of your Dock application. Is it spiking around the 100% mark? You should see something like the following:

Steps To Resolve The Issue

To resolve this issue, the following steps will have to be taken:

• Remove the Windows Applications folder from the Dock application
• Kill the Dock application
• Verify the Dock application is functioning normally

Very simple set of steps that takes longer to document and explain than to actually fix!

Dock: Windows Application Folder

Dock: Remove Windows Application Folder From The Dock

Dock: Windows Application Folder Removed From The Dock

Kill The Current Dock Application

Confirm Quit (Kill) of Dock Application

Confirm CPU Usage Has Subsided

Proof.

So, just to prove how much of an impact this was, my battery life went from about 2:24 battery (remaining) to 8:33 battery (remaining).

Before

After