Small Town Geeks

Has your Mac been slowing down recently? Do you have a load of programs launching when you boot your machine? Are you running out of space and you don’t know where it all went? These are all common problems for Mac as well as PC users. Today we are going to take a look at a few ways you can speed up your mac and keep it in tip top shape.

*Note as a precaution please take a couple of minutes to back up all of your files. The last thing you want to do is make your mac too clean and remove all of your pictures from that vacation you took last September.

Uninstall un-needed applications- I am just as guilty as the next guy for downloading and trying new software and than forgetting about it. When you are doing your clean up routine take a look at your list of applications and remove the applications that you do not use. I have found that CleanMyMac does a great job uninstalling not only the application but also all of the settings and plist files that go along with it. CleanMyMac also makes it simple by just dragging and dropping applications into the trash, and CleanMyMAc  will uninstall them from your system.

If you do not want to purchase CleanMyMac there is a program called appCleaner from freemacsoft that can be downloaded from here that works in a similar fashion.

 

Turn off unnecessary programs from launching at boot- You may have noticed your machine is launching programs when you boot up. This could not only slow down your system but it is also very annoying.

• First Click the apple on the top right of your screen
• Click “System Preferences”
• Next click “Accounts” near the bottom under “System”
• Next click the lock so we can make changes
• Enter your password and click “Login Items”. Here you will be presented with several items in a list, these are all of the programs that start when your machine starts up. To remove items, select the items that you do not want to startup and click the minus sign.

 

After you have pruned everything that you do not want to startup, click the lock to prevent any further changes. You will no longer have to wait for several applications to load when you boot up your mac.

Find out what is taken up all of the space on your hard drive and get rid of it- Sometimes in the Mac operating system, it is hard to find out what is taking up space on the machine without navigating to several different locations and getting the info on every folder.  There are several different programs out there that will show you what is taking up space and where it is located. For this we will be using “Disk Inventory X” from Derlien Software. Disk Inventory X will provide you with a map of your hard disk. The map will have different color blocks representing files on your computer. The larger blocks being the larger files on the disk.

• To get started, Click on the icon then choose a disk to scan.
• Choose your hard drive and click “Open Volume”
• Disk Inventory X will scan your drive. When it is complete you will be presented with an image of your hard drive in blocks, the larger blocks being the larger files.
• You can now click on the file to see where it is located. You can see in the above image “Portal Game Content Files” were taking up a lot of space on the hard disk.

*Note: You can also get statistics to see what type of files are occupying your hard drive by clicking on the Hide File Kind Statistics pane.

Perform System Maintenance with Onyx- Onyx is an all in one utility to clean out old temp files as well as do maintenance on your machine. To use onyx, download the application here and double click on the Icon to launch the program. You will be presented with several different tasks you can perform:

• Verify – This will allow you to verify preferences, S.M.A.R.T. Status of the Hard Disk, as well as the Filesystem Structure.
• Maintenance – This will allow you to repair permissions on your system, Run OSX Maintenance Scripts, and Rebuild things like Launch Services, Cache’s, and this will also rebuild the spotlight index used for searching
• Cleaning – This tab showcases several cache/temp file cleaners ranging from Log files to internet history
• Utilities – This tab provides utilities such as Manuals for different OSX programs and commands. This tab also has a place to launch hard to find applications such as “Directory Utility” and “Screen Sharing”.
• Automation- This is in my opinion the easiest way to clean up and use this program. This tab gives you a list of the most useful parts of the program. You make your selections and click execute. The program will run through the tasks that you have selected and provide you will a clean computer.

As suggested, for the novice the easiest way to use this program is to use the automation tab with the defaults selected with the addition of “Execute Maintenance Scripts” and click execute.

The All In One Utility: Clean My Mac - I have saved the best for last. Clean My Mac from MacPaw Software is in my opinion the best and easiest to use clean up software for the mac. Clean My Mac provides a very intuitive user interface and has the feeling of a Mac program. Besides cleaning temp files Clean My Mac also lets you manage your Widgets, Plugins and System Preferences. Clean My Mac also keeps your removable devices clean by removing .DS_Store (Mac) files as well as Tumbs.db  (PC) which are used by the operating system for things like positioning as well as thumbnail caching.

To use Clean My Mac:

• Click Scan
• Wait
• Click Clean

It is that easy! Clean my mac will navigate your machine and remove things like Log Files, Un-Needed Language Files, and temp files. Clean my mac will then alert you with a Growl notification so you can be working and it will not disrupt your work. This application has many other features such as managing plugins and extensions, securly deleting files, and what they call “Leftover” removal which gets rid of old application files . This application is deffinately worth $14.99 (6 Months) or $29.95 (Lifetime).

If you are unsure about what you are deleting CleanMyMac will display help information about what is being cleaned.

 

Bonus: There is a maintenance widget available from GiantMike.com. Maintenance widget will place a widget on your dashboard that will tell you when the last time the scripts were ran as well as the option to run the scripts whenever you want to. You can download the widget here: Maintenance Widget

These maintenance scripts perform the following tasks:

• Daily:
  • Removes old logs
  • Removes scratch and junk files (temporary files)
  • Removes scratch fax files
  • Backs up NetInfo data
  • Checks subsystem status
  • Cleans mail queue
  • Gathers account statistics
  • Cleans up asl.log
  • Rotates logs: system

• Weekly:
  • Rebuilds locate database
  • Rebuilds whatis database
  • Rotates logs: ftp, lpr, mail, netino, ipfw, ppp, secure
• Monthly:
  • Runs login accounting
  • Rotates logs: wtmp, install, fax

(From GiantMike.com)

This list is not the end all be all by any means. I have noticed after running these applications, all of my Macs have sped up and are much more usable now. If you have a program that you use please share. If you have any questions feel free to comment or email me at tj {at} smalltowngeeks {dot} net.

Until Next Time.

“Carpe Noctum”

Author: TJ