mackeeper

How is Mackeeper

Junk.

Check out Onyx if you feel you need to do maintenance (which should be few and far between).

I concur with cwa. MacKeeper is junk, and the company is well-known for phony reviews and even trolling this forum with bogus posts and testimonials. Avoid it like the plague.

CleanMyMac

CleanMyMac is a good software I use also. It isn't free but I have a torrented version and it works great. I run that with software update, and then use the program restart, and it feels like a new computer.

Jarrett said:

CleanMyMac is a good software I use also. It isn't free but I have a torrented version and it works great. I run that with software update, and then use the program restart, and it feels like a new computer.

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No it's not. It's horrible. You should read around more. A lot of people have had issues with it, and much of what it does is vague and not really helpful.

And you should really rethink announcing that you are a software pirate so publicly.

@Jarrett:

We do not discuss illegal activities in these forums. Authors of software work hard to publish and should be paid. No one likes to have their hard work stolen. Please keep that in mind the next time you "decide" to use a torrent.

lifeisabeach - so what would you recommend as a good app for removing unnecessary files which get missed or pile up?

CleanMyMac is garbage.

Also a search of the forum for MacKeeper will get you information that's already out there.

Maximus said:

lifeisabeach - so what would you recommend as a good app for removing unnecessary files which get missed or pile up?

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Answered in post 2, this thread.

+1 for OnyX. There is enough info already on this site that made my own decision easy the first day I got my MBP 3 weeks ago.

Maximus said:

lifeisabeach - so what would you recommend as a good app for removing unnecessary files which get missed or pile up?

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Onyx is good enough for most people's need. I like TinkerTool System. It has a few extra tricks available vs Onyx and the explanations it provides are very helpful. It's not free, but very reasonably priced.

I knew of some other utility that had an interesting feature that would seek out .pref files and let you delete anything that hadn't been accessed in, say, a year or more, or however long you specify. I cannot for the life of me recall what it was, or find it now.

But anywho, don't get too hung up on the idea that unnecessary files "pile up" in OS X and must be rooted out to help performance. This isn't Windows with a registry that grows and grows and bloats up to galactic proportions. Any helper files that may not get deleted when you trash an app typically are very small, take up trivial disk space, and have zero impact on performance. There can be exceptions, in cases of apps that hook deeper into the system, like plug-ins, drivers, and such, but those are exceptions and no utility exists that can hunt things like that down for you. It's best to be more aware of what you install and, if necessary, follow the directions provided by the developer for completely uninstalling their software. General rule of thumb: if the app was dragged/dropped from a dmg and didn't prompt you to install some extra support files when first run, then simply deleting it will be enough. If it came with an installer or an uninstaller, use the uninstaller or check for further directions from the developer to ensure complete removal.

thanks, this helps alot! I currently do have CleanMyMac...but most of the infor deleted comes from cleaning out the cache...

I found the app I was thinking of that could seek out pref files that hadn't been accessed in a year or more. It's Tidy Up. It's actually a pretty decent app, but you do have to use some common sense in using it. For example, while it does a thorough search for duplicately-named items, it's not advisable to simply take it at face value that the duplicates are safe to delete. Sometimes they may have the same name, but may in fact be different; they may be identical, but the duplicate properly belongs to another user account; or may be identical but needs to be in the alternate location to suit the needs of the app it belongs to. Tidy Up does present its findings so you can make a personal decision on whether or not to delete anything, and optionally will make backups, just in case. I think it's a bit steep at 30 bucks, but it's far superior to CleanMyMac for the same money.

Onyx is good enough for most people's need. I like TinkerTool System. It has a few extra tricks available vs Onyx and the explanations it provides are very helpful. It's not free, but very reasonably priced.

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I use both and especially love TinkerTool. BTW, TinkerTool version 4.5 (for Snow Leopard) is free as far as I'm aware. Did you have to pay for it?

chscag said:

I use both and especially love TinkerTool. BTW, TinkerTool version 4.5 (for Snow Leopard) is free as far as I'm aware. Did you have to pay for it?

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TinkerTool and TinkerTool System are two different apps by the same developer (confusing, I know). TTS offers much of what Onyx does, in addition to an app uninstaller (best in its class), code thinning, an advanced ACL Permissions editor, and a lot more. The UI I think is a little clunky (designed to mimic System Preferences), but I've seen much worse. It is the only paid app of this class that I recommend.

Avoid CleanMyMac and MacKeeper like the plague! There are other threads if you do a searcxh. Download and use Onyx.

Tnx for the un-install advice in #11 lifeisabeach. I wanted to delete Mackeeper but was having difficulty with some files that would not go away. I called the 800#. The people there said to get the app into the trash...restart... and then empty the trash. The whole app was deleted....no files to be found.
I hope this helps others a little. The reason I wanted it gone was that it was slowing my machine down!
With Mackeeper gone my Mac is back!
Many thanks to all those who are so helpful for us weenies.

beltfed1 you might like to have a read of this thread and go hunting anything that maybe left behind:-


[Fix-KB] - Uninstall MacKeeper