I'm Used To Windows and All The Utilities You Need To Try to Keep It Running & Dying Anyway

[t.allyn]

I keep feeling like I'm missing something on my first "real" Macy - I had another really old used one several years ago that died quickly after I bought it.

So now after decades of owning PC's costing between $200-$1000 and all of them going to crap within about a year maybe two regardless how diligent I was caring for them. Now I keep feeling like I am missing utilities like an expensive web suite, Malwarebytes, Ccleaner, and more. I do have the free version of Avast on my new Mac and I put Onyx on it but don't really like.

Any suggestions for cheap or free Utilities that won't do more damage than good. I've just about shot my whole $ wad when I purchased the Mac last Friday. My son is even a PC tech and will work on my PC's and they still eventually go to crap. I'm so sick and tired of PC's. I know there is Ccleaner for Mac but from what I've read it seems a waste of time.

 

[MacInWin]

Get rid of Avast. Don't need it, doesn't do anything, waste of time. No viruses in the wild for Macs and when the first one does appear, Avast won't know what to do until it does. But then so will everybody, so just wait for it to appear. Onyx is good, and is recommended here. Malwarebytes is OK, but DetectX Swift is more comprehensive. CCleaner is not needed, get rid of it or don't get it.

All you need is Onyx, run it every 5-6 months with the defaults from the developer. That will keep your system cleaned up all you need. You can run DetectX every month or so, although longer intervals won't hurt. It most likely won't find anything anyway.

I know how you feel. I moved from Windows to Mac about 11 years ago and suffered from the same "I should be doing something" syndrome. Stop fretting and just enjoy the Mac.

I saw you installed Windows in Bootcamp. Over there you will need all the antivirus and other stuff for windows, just like you always did. It's Windows, just running on Apple hardware. But when booted into macOS, you don't need all those third party utilities.

EDIT: IF you have not read this thread, take some time to do so. Good stuff there: Sage advice for the new Mac switcher

 

[RadDave]

1+ for Jake's advice - I use Onyx, iStatMenus, DetectX Swift, DriveDx, Coconut Battery, and several Safari extensions for browser malware; have a Password app and also use Keychain, and do routine backups w/ Time Machine & cloner software (CCC for me) - Dave

 

[ferrarr]

Here's what I have installed;

AppCleaner, not the version from the macOS App Store, AppCleaner. It gets hidden files when uninstalling/deleting apps/software.
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, in the macOS App Store.
DriveDX, DriveDx - the most advanced drive health diagnostics and monitoring utility, it's a drive health diagnostic/monitoring tool for almost all drives used with your Mac.
EasyFind, DEVONtechnologies | Needful Things, a little search utility for macOS.
EtreCheck, EtreCheck, a great little scan tool for you Mac, when issues happen.
GrandPerspective, GrandPerspective, a graphical utility that shows file system usage.
MacsFanControl, https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control, monitors fan speed and internal heat sensors and displays them in the menubar.
Maintenance (also from Titanium), https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/maintenance.html and it only includes the "Maintenance" section of OnyX, which is mostly recommended on this forum.
MalwareBytes, but I haven't used it in 8 10 months, but I have it installed.


I used to go through my systems once a month, until a couple of years ago, now I do it about 2 or three times a year, or as needed when issues arise. I have three winOS PC's I have to maintain as well.

 

[MacInWin]

Think of it this way, there are two types of third party software: those that you need to maintain the OS in peak performance and those that you use if something goes wrong. In that first category, needed for maintenance and peak performance, there are really no apps. If you leave the machine on overnight, when the system goes idle in the early morning hours the OS will do some cleaning on its own. Of all that have been listed here, the only one that can maybe help out is OnyX, which will force cache cleaning and some other structural things that you can accomplish with an occasional SafeBoot followed by a normal reboot. But OnyX is free, which is nice, so most of us have/use it. The rest of the things mentioned are nice-to-have-if-you-want-them, but not critical. That includes AppCleaner, Blackmagic, DriveDX, EasyFind, EtreCheck, GrandPerspective, MacsFanControl, Malwarebytes, iStat Menu, Coconut battery, etc. None of them do really critical tasks that really make a difference in operation, but they do sometimes make troubleshooting/working out issues a bit easier. AppCleaner will get at the little bits of debris that applications tend to leave behind, mostly crumbs, when you uninstall an app. The drive utilities are good when/if a drive starts to fail, but in normal usage you don't need them. Ditto for EtreCheck, GrandPerspective, MacsFanControl, iStat and Coconut battery. EasyFind (and FindAnyFile) are both better file finders than Spotlight, but are not critical to operations. So, given your thread was about "All The Utilities You Need To Try to Keep It Running" the quick answer is "none." It just runs.

To protect yourself while browsing, you might look at an ad blocker, or Ghostery, to avoid the various browser hijackers out there. Being hijacked isn't fatal, just annoying.

No need to spend money, most of the things that you might find handy are free: OnyX, Ghostery, Malwarebytes, EasyFind.

 

[t.allyn]

Get rid of Avast. Don't need it, doesn't do anything, waste of time. No viruses in the wild for Macs and when the first one does appear, Avast won't know what to do until it does. But then so will everybody, so just wait for it to appear. Onyx is good, and is recommended here. Malwarebytes is OK, but DetectX Swift is more comprehensive. CCleaner is not needed, get rid of it or don't get it.

All you need is Onyx, run it every 5-6 months with the defaults from the developer. That will keep your system cleaned up all you need. You can run DetectX every month or so, although longer intervals won't hurt. It most likely won't find anything anyway.

I know how you feel. I moved from Windows to Mac about 11 years ago and suffered from the same "I should be doing something" syndrome. Stop fretting and just enjoy the Mac.

I saw you installed Windows in Bootcamp. Over there you will need all the antivirus and other stuff for windows, just like you always did. It's Windows, just running on Apple hardware. But when booted into macOS, you don't need all those third party utilities.

EDIT: IF you have not read this thread, take some time to do so. Good stuff there: Sage advice for the new Mac switcher

1+ for Jake's advice - I use Onyx, iStatMenus, DetectX Swift, DriveDx, Coconut Battery, and several Safari extensions for browser malware; have a Password app and also use Keychain, and do routine backups w/ Time Machine & cloner software (CCC for me) - Dave

Here's what I have installed;

AppCleaner, not the version from the macOS App Store, AppCleaner. It gets hidden files when uninstalling/deleting apps/software.
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, in the macOS App Store.
DriveDX, DriveDx - the most advanced drive health diagnostics and monitoring utility, it's a drive health diagnostic/monitoring tool for almost all drives used with your Mac.
EasyFind, DEVONtechnologies | Needful Things, a little search utility for macOS.
EtreCheck, EtreCheck, a great little scan tool for you Mac, when issues happen.
GrandPerspective, GrandPerspective, a graphical utility that shows file system usage.
MacsFanControl, https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control, monitors fan speed and internal heat sensors and displays them in the menubar.
Maintenance (also from Titanium), https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/maintenance.html and it only includes the "Maintenance" section of OnyX, which is mostly recommended on this forum.
MalwareBytes, but I haven't used it in 8 10 months, but I have it installed.


I used to go through my systems once a month, until a couple of years ago, now I do it about 2 or three times a year, or as needed when issues arise. I have three winOS PC's I have to maintain as well.

Think of it this way, there are two types of third party software: those that you need to maintain the OS in peak performance and those that you use if something goes wrong. In that first category, needed for maintenance and peak performance, there are really no apps. If you leave the machine on overnight, when the system goes idle in the early morning hours the OS will do some cleaning on its own. Of all that have been listed here, the only one that can maybe help out is OnyX, which will force cache cleaning and some other structural things that you can accomplish with an occasional SafeBoot followed by a normal reboot. But OnyX is free, which is nice, so most of us have/use it. The rest of the things mentioned are nice-to-have-if-you-want-them, but not critical. That includes AppCleaner, Blackmagic, DriveDX, EasyFind, EtreCheck, GrandPerspective, MacsFanControl, Malwarebytes, iStat Menu, Coconut battery, etc. None of them do really critical tasks that really make a difference in operation, but they do sometimes make troubleshooting/working out issues a bit easier. AppCleaner will get at the little bits of debris that applications tend to leave behind, mostly crumbs, when you uninstall an app. The drive utilities are good when/if a drive starts to fail, but in normal usage you don't need them. Ditto for EtreCheck, GrandPerspective, MacsFanControl, iStat and Coconut battery. EasyFind (and FindAnyFile) are both better file finders than Spotlight, but are not critical to operations. So, given your thread was about "All The Utilities You Need To Try to Keep It Running" the quick answer is "none." It just runs.

To protect yourself while browsing, you might look at an ad blocker, or Ghostery, to avoid the various browser hijackers out there. Being hijacked isn't fatal, just annoying.

No need to spend money, most of the things that you might find handy are free: OnyX, Ghostery, Malwarebytes, EasyFind.

I very much appreciate all of the thoughtful replies especially when I suspect you all get folks like me here regularly. I have already gotten rid of Avast.

 

[krs]

Think of it this way, there are two types of third party software: those that you need to maintain the OS in peak performance and those that you use if something goes wrong. In that first category, needed for maintenance and peak performance, there are really no apps. If you leave the machine on overnight, when the system goes idle in the early morning hours the OS will do some cleaning on its own. Of all that have been listed here, the only one that can maybe help out is OnyX, which will force cache cleaning and some other structural things that you can accomplish with an occasional SafeBoot followed by a normal reboot. But OnyX is free, which is nice, so most of us have/use it. The rest of the things mentioned are nice-to-have-if-you-want-them, but not critical. That includes AppCleaner, Blackmagic, DriveDX, EasyFind, EtreCheck, GrandPerspective, MacsFanControl, Malwarebytes, iStat Menu, Coconut battery, etc. None of them do really critical tasks that really make a difference in operation, but they do sometimes make troubleshooting/working out issues a bit easier. AppCleaner will get at the little bits of debris that applications tend to leave behind, mostly crumbs, when you uninstall an app. The drive utilities are good when/if a drive starts to fail, but in normal usage you don't need them. Ditto for EtreCheck, GrandPerspective, MacsFanControl, iStat and Coconut battery. EasyFind (and FindAnyFile) are both better file finders than Spotlight, but are not critical to operations. So, given your thread was about "All The Utilities You Need To Try to Keep It Running" the quick answer is "none." It just runs.

To protect yourself while browsing, you might look at an ad blocker, or Ghostery, to avoid the various browser hijackers out there. Being hijacked isn't fatal, just annoying.

No need to spend money, most of the things that you might find handy are free: OnyX, Ghostery, Malwarebytes, EasyFind.

From my experience using a Mac for 25+ years and looking after the health of about a dozen Macs owned by members of my family, Jake's advice is dead on.
The only "maintenance" we do regularly, if you can even call that maintenance, is a more or less regular backup.

On the net, one often comes across advertisements for Mac Cleaner apps - I would't touch those witha 10-foot pole.
Of the apps mentioned, we have used:
OnyX once - didn't seem to do anything, at least nothing obvious, so that was not used again
Coconut Battery - used on a few older MacBook pros just for interest in what it shows about the battery
iStat - also just for interest, mostly to check how hot the various components became during the hot spells this summer when I was at a place with no air conditioning
Malwarebytes - when someone in the family thought they had malware on their Mac; never found any
FindAnyFile - that is actually used fairly regulalrly; the find capability built into the Mac seems to be getting worse and worse. The Mac can't find files/folders which I know are there, FAF finds those in seconds
DriveDX - used that the first time yesterday. It could only give me the "Health" of my internal drive, didn't even detect half of the external ones I had connected and required some sort of update to read SMART from the other ones. So I just deleted that app again.

 

[RadDave]

From my experience using a Mac for 25+ years and looking after the health of about a dozen Macs owned by members of my family, Jake's advice is dead on.
The only "maintenance" we do regularly, if you can even call that maintenance, is a more or less regular backup.

On the net, one often comes across advertisements for Mac Cleaner apps - I would't touch those witha 10-foot pole.
Of the apps mentioned, we have used:
OnyX once - didn't seem to do anything, at least nothing obvious, so that was not used again
Coconut Battery - used on a few older MacBook pros just for interest in what it shows about the battery
iStat - also just for interest, mostly to check how hot the various components became during the hot spells this summer when I was at a place with no air conditioning
Malwarebytes - when someone in the family thought they had malware on their Mac; never found any
FindAnyFile - that is actually used fairly regulalrly; the find capability built into the Mac seems to be getting worse and worse. The Mac can't find files/folders which I know are there, FAF finds those in seconds
DriveDX - used that the first time yesterday. It could only give me the "Health" of my internal drive, didn't even detect half of the external ones I had connected and required some sort of update to read SMART from the other ones. So I just deleted that app again.

Well, not sure that you've given a number of apps that I use a detailed analysis and use - just to mention a few discussed above:

Onyx - to me this app is a gentler 'cleaner' - over the years I've had a number of minor issues (cannot be that specific) w/ apps and Onyx has solved the problem - I've donated to the developer several times - the app is recommended by most here - thumbs up for me.

Coconut Battery - free app - my main use to to check the 'battery health' on my iOS devices (Apple has limited this feature on iOS apps) - most recently, help me to decide that a prematurely dying battery on an iPad Air 2 warranted buying a new iPad rather than replacing the battery - no visit to the Genius Bar and an easy decision.

DriveDx - you really need to spend more time w/ this app and also set up your computers to use the SMART feature on external drives - it works - just ditched a dying external SSD (another thread here) based on the results of this app - highly recommended, IMO. Dave

 

[chscag]

DriveDx - you really need to spend more time w/ this app and also set up your computers to use the SMART feature on external drives - it works - just ditched a dying external SSD (another thread here) based on the results of this app - highly recommended, IMO. Dave

Couldn't agree more. Well worth spending the money for this app plus its update which works for external drives.

 

[krs]

I was just really trying to emphasize, and what others have said as well, that for regular maintenance, one doesn't need any special apps.
If there is a problem or even perceived problem, yes, then using a specific app could possibly fix that.
And I think your comments confirm that as well.

Or do people run OnyX for instance on a regular basis, say every few days or once a week?

 

[MacInWin]

I run OnyX about once every six months, if I remember to do so. Otherwise, no other maintenance.