Best free software to clean out system?

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I run a old Mac MIni PC G4 for general web use , Itunes and "word" Only.

what is a great way to clean out old hidden clutter etc ?

cheers
 
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MacJanitor or Mac Keeper for the job me thinks.

- Simon
 
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MacJanitor or Mac Keeper for the job me thinks.

MacKeeper? Seriously? That app is junk. It's the top not-recommended app here. As for MacJanitor, its sole purpose is to run the daily/weekly/monthly cron scripts. Better to just use Onyx.
 

chscag

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+1 for OnyX and minus 1 for MacKeeper. :)
 
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Ah well you learn something new every day, I had heard about MacKeeper alot but didn't hear about it being that bad, oh well...

- Simon
 

chscag

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Live and learn Simon. That's why our forums are so valuable - because no matter how much experience any of us have, we can all still learn. ;D
 
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I had heard about MacKeeper alot
They must have huge advertising expenses, they're really trying to push it everywhere they can trying to find people who don't know safer applications are available.
 
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Another +1 vote for Onyx and avoid MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, MacDefender etc like the very plague.
 
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Onyx, the only "maintenance" app any Mac user should need.
 
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Onyx it is then !

Might copy over files to external HD and re install so i have a clean start .

Thanks
 
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Onyx it is then !

Might copy over files to external HD and re install so i have a clean start .

Thanks
I would say just erase the drive, reinstall from install disk, then restore only what you want from time machine. This will give you the cleanest machine.
 
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naw, the reinstall takes maybe 30-40 min. Then the rest depends on what apps you reinstall. but lets say an hour for the whole operation
 
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As a suggestion use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner tot the freshly formatted external, erase internal and do a clean install and use Migration Assistant to bring over applications, network settings etc.
 
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As a suggestion use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner tot the freshly formatted external, erase internal and do a clean install and use Migration Assistant to bring over applications, network settings etc.

If you migrate your user profile over, you are also migrating back all the "junk" that you are trying to get rid of. I actually spent a bit of time last weekend rooting through my system. I decided to kick out once and for all older apps that required Rosetta, others that were trialware but I never bothered to register, etc. I also went through the Library and found a plethora of plist files and other "support" files that dated back to my prior Mac. It all got imported in when I migrated my user over. I wish I had documented more of that job. I cleaned out a LOT of cruft, although it should also be said that those files weren't impacting my system performance in the first place. This isn't Windows and there's no great need to worry about relic support files.

EDIT: Actually I didn't go through my wife's user folder, and there's a lot of old cruft I can clean up there. I'll try some tools to help automate this and report back how it works out.
 
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When do you need to clean out your machine with Onyx? I have 2 Macs. One is an iMac that I bought new about 5 months ago. The other is a new MacBook Pro that I bought about 3 months ago. Is there maintenance that needs to be performed that I'm not aware of?
 

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When do you need to clean out your machine with Onyx? I have 2 Macs. One is an iMac that I bought new about 5 months ago. The other is a new MacBook Pro that I bought about 3 months ago. Is there maintenance that needs to be performed that I'm not aware of?

For the most part, there is no need to do routine maintenance. If you really feel like there's some hole in your life that you need to fill by doing computer maintenance chores, then limit it to once or twice a year.

But for the most part, my advice is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
 
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Thanks....Very good advice.
 

bobtomay

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For the most part, there is no need to do routine maintenance. If you really feel like there's some hole in your life that you need to fill by doing computer maintenance chores, then limit it to once or twice a year.

But for the most part, my advice is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

I tend to agree with the above.

Although it will greatly depend on an individual's usage patterns.

I seem to run Onyx once every 2-3 months - only when I begin noticing a slow down.

My wife has no maintenance app installed, nor has any type of maintenance been run on her MB whatsoever. It has gone through upgrade installs from Tiger to Leopard to Snow Leopard and claims her machine is just as fast now as when new. Her machine is now 4 years old.
 
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So then Onyx is something like CCleaner on the PC side? You don't have to do a re-install to run it, or erase the current OS?
 

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