ronaldfromok

Q: Is there a program on Mac Book that periodically "cleans" the Mac, or is there a download that will do that?

Is there a program on Mac Book that periodically "cleans" the Mac, or is there a download that will do that?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jan 23, 2012 7:28 PM

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Q: Is there a program on Mac Book that periodically "cleans" the Mac, or is there a download that will do that?

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  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jan 23, 2012 7:58 PM in response to ronaldfromok
    Level 9 (51,311 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 23, 2012 7:58 PM in response to ronaldfromok

    ronaldfromok wrote:

     

    Thanks to all that responded.  I am a new Mac user, and have had some difficulty adapting to multiple changes.

    I knew the Mac did not require antivirus software(Norton, McAfee,etc), but there were several good programs on PC's that were free and "cleaned" temporary internet files, and other unwanted files very well.  I was just wondering if anything like that was needed or not on my new Mac Book Pro 15"?

    One respondent "Noble Seven" did suggest "iBoostUp" which is an App in the Mac App Store, that they found to be useful.

    Do not download iBoostUp.

  • by Noble Seven,

    Noble Seven Noble Seven Jan 23, 2012 8:06 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 4 (2,792 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 23, 2012 8:06 PM in response to Csound1

    Well, first off. I was referring more to this when I made my statement.Screen Shot 2012-01-23 at 10.56.14 PM.png

    Also, when I downloaded the App and ran it, I cleared out over 4 GB of stuff on my computer. That was a few weeks ago, and I have not had ANY of the problems outlined in those very few bad reviews for the App.

     

    Just one example, the review in your picture titled "Useless!" is, in my opinion, a bad review itself. For one thing, the poster complained of only being able to check 4 items, which I don't see as a valid reason to hate it, when, like I said, it cleared over 4 GB on my HD which is only about 60 GB full.

     

    All in all, I think the pros, as well as 5 star reviews, of this App, far outwiegh the bad reviews.

  • by Noble Seven,

    Noble Seven Noble Seven Jan 23, 2012 8:08 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 4 (2,792 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 23, 2012 8:08 PM in response to Csound1

    And unfortunately, you have resorted to simply telling ronald to not download an App which is proven to be helpful, just because you have some hardheaded mission to make this App look bad. I really think that it's childish to do something like this, and not helpful to the OP at all.

  • by AnaMusic,

    AnaMusic AnaMusic Jan 23, 2012 8:23 PM in response to ronaldfromok
    Level 9 (57,241 points)
    Jan 23, 2012 8:23 PM in response to ronaldfromok

    ronaldfromok wrote:

     

    Thanks, I found the Apple Web site you listed to be helpful.

     

    Cool...

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Jan 24, 2012 3:46 AM in response to Noble Seven
    Level 7 (30,944 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 24, 2012 3:46 AM in response to Noble Seven

    How about you download it and give it a try? You might drop your sarcastic tone afterwards.

     

    Not likely.  Almost all of its functionality is totally unnecessary.  You do not need to do any of those things to your Mac.  Seriously.  This is simply another in a long line of utilities designed to milk money from former Windows users, who expect to need this sort of thing, and unsophisticated users, who can be fooled into installing a lot of junk.

     

    It may have cleared out 4 GB of stuff, but did it give you any measurable benefit?  No.  And that 4 GB will simply come back, because it's things like caches, whose purpose are to keep your Mac running fast.  The need for cache cleaning is the biggest myth in the Mac world, perpetuated by people like the makers of iBoostup.  Caches should be left alone, unless you develop a corrupt cache that is causing problems.  That is rare...  it has never happened to me and I've used Mac OS X since 10.1.

     

    Ronald, forget iBoostup...  you do not need it.

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Jan 24, 2012 3:47 AM in response to steve359
    Level 7 (30,944 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 24, 2012 3:47 AM in response to steve359

    Let's give it to Thomas A Reed.  Yeah ... he won't use ... he hates everything!

     

    Do you have any actual information to offer, or just trying to trash me?

  • by Shootist007,

    Shootist007 Shootist007 Jan 24, 2012 4:43 AM in response to thomas_r.
    Level 6 (16,660 points)
    Jan 24, 2012 4:43 AM in response to thomas_r.

    Well it is FREE! At least that is what it says when I went to look at the reviews.

    How does a FREE program Milk money from X users of Windows PCs now using a Mac?

     

    I do appreciate some of your articles but really why are you, and many others, so against utilities that have helped others to clear out junk the the OS does not.

     

    OS X, all versions, is not perfect. If it was there would not be updates for it, all versions.

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Jan 24, 2012 4:56 AM in response to Shootist007
    Level 7 (30,944 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 24, 2012 4:56 AM in response to Shootist007

    Free?  Is it?  Really?  Are you sure?

     

    Screen Shot 2012-01-24 at 7.44.03 AM.png

     

    That may not seem like much, but if there's one thing developers have learned from the iOS store model, it's that small purchases add up fast, because people are more likely to spend $0.99 without thinking, and that in-app purchasing is a huge market.

     

    As to why I, and others like me, are so against these utilities, it is because of what I have already said:  they are totally unnecessary!  You say they help people "clear out junk"...  and do you know for a fact that what is cleared out is actually junk?  It may be disposable, but that does not make it junk.  And do you know for a fact that clearing out all that "junk" helps the target systems' performance at all?  No, because it does not.

     

    If caches and logs simply built up endlessly over time, then you might have a case.  But they do not.

     

    Let the OS do its job, and spend your time and your money on other things.

  • by Shootist007,

    Shootist007 Shootist007 Jan 24, 2012 5:06 AM in response to thomas_r.
    Level 6 (16,660 points)
    Jan 24, 2012 5:06 AM in response to thomas_r.

    Screen Shot 2012-01-24 at 8.02.27 AM.png

     

    Note the FREE in the upper left hand corner.

    No I have not downloaded it.

  • by eww,

    eww eww Jan 24, 2012 5:07 AM in response to Shootist007
    Level 9 (52,994 points)
    Jan 24, 2012 5:07 AM in response to Shootist007

    Another instance of "You get what you pay for."

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Jan 24, 2012 5:17 AM in response to Shootist007
    Level 7 (30,944 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 24, 2012 5:17 AM in response to Shootist007

    You brought this up because I mentioned these kinds of utilities milking money from people.  The fact that it is free is irrelevant to that point if it has in-app purchases.  Does the developer have a revenue stream from this app?  Yes.  Point made.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jan 24, 2012 6:15 AM in response to Noble Seven
    Level 9 (51,311 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 24, 2012 6:15 AM in response to Noble Seven

    Noble Seven wrote:

     

    And unfortunately, you have resorted to simply telling ronald to not download an App which is proven to be helpful, just because you have some hardheaded mission to make this App look bad. I really think that it's childish to do something like this, and not helpful to the OP at all.

    That's called good advice,

     

    This is not Windows.

  • by NecromancerMortanius,

    NecromancerMortanius NecromancerMortanius Jan 24, 2012 6:29 AM in response to ronaldfromok
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 24, 2012 6:29 AM in response to ronaldfromok

    iBoost Up ain't much. I believe the best ones out there are Onyx and CleanMyMac. Keep away from MacKeeper, as it will bring you nothing but worries. I highly reccomend Onyx, which does more than iBoost Up and is free as well. If you want something more simplistic, I'd tell you to download CleanMyMac.

  • by steve359,

    steve359 steve359 Jan 24, 2012 6:32 AM in response to thomas_r.
    Level 6 (14,032 points)
    Jan 24, 2012 6:32 AM in response to thomas_r.

    Poorly timed humor.  I apologize.

  • by ds store,

    ds store ds store Jan 24, 2012 8:21 AM in response to ronaldfromok
    Level 7 (30,400 points)
    Jan 24, 2012 8:21 AM in response to ronaldfromok

    ronaldfromok wrote:

     

    ...but there were several good programs on PC's that were free and "cleaned" temporary Internet files, and other unwanted files very well.  I was just wondering if anything like that was needed or not on my new Mac Book Pro 15"?

     

    There is Ccleaner for OS X, OnyX for OS X (use both and clean your browser history/caches first though in the browser, empty trash of unwanted files) and then there is using Apple's Disk Utility > Erase Free Space (0x, or 7x for military level) if you want to "scrub" the hard drive of deleted data so it cant' be recovered. Scrubbing the drive is the last thing you do to make sure deleted files are gone.

     

    Zero Erase is good enough for most, takes about 1-2 hours, but data can be recovered by the forensic experts (Brian Manning mistake)

     

    7x takes hours and is needed to ensure data can't be recovered at all (Brian should have used this)

     

    35x takes days to complete. (as Brian Manning found out and canceled, opted for 0x instead, opps!)

     

    http://www.piriform.com/mac/ccleaner

     

    http://www.titanium.free.fr/

     

     

    The above steps should be fine for most "adult" type uses where you might have some secret fetish your exploring and your other won't approve.

     

     

    However if you want to really scrub things and make sure there is no trace, (like turning the machine over to another person) only booting the drive from Lion Recovery Partition (Command r boot) or a 10.6 if your machine can boot that) and using Disk Utility > Erase Disk with 7x, reinstalling OS X, your programs and files is the way to go.

     

     

    SSD's cannot be securely erased due to "wear leveling" as they can be worn out with "scrubbing" so it's not being done despite what software tells you.

     

    http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/17/1911217/Confidential-Data-Not-Safe-O n-Solid-State-Disks

     

    So if you have something on a SSD (iPhone, iPod, iPad too) you really need to get rid of, replacing the SSD (or the device) is the only way to be sure.

     

    http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp

     

    Apple in the near future will likely be shipping Mac's with only SSD options, likely hard drives will be a build to order option or removed completely.

     

     

     

    For my surfing of risky sites, I use a virtual machine software called VMFusion (Parallels Desktop or VirtualBox too) and Windows 7 (or Linux Mint) fully updated and tweaked, which I then use a copy of that and trash when finished. (revert to earlier snapshot) dumping everything and anything which could have gotten into Windows (or Linux) from hostile sites. I update only the pristine guest OS version, never one used widely on the Internet.

     

    As always, the governments are recording our ISP traffic, computer information, cell phone location and anything else they can get their hands on and thus only have to search the records. So to do anything covert online needs to be 100% disposable in every aspect. Use once and never again.

     

    Hopefully this has answered your question.

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