User Cache question

Cache files are created for the purpose of speeding up program and/or data access. However, if cache files become excessively large they can lead to possible system slowdowns. If you aren't experiencing obvious system slowdowns then there's no need to remove cache files.

The main reason for removing cache files is when one or more become corrupted and cause system or application malfunctions.

With Snow Leopard the two maintenance utilities I rely on are TinkerTool System and Snow Leopard Cache Cleaner - VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

As Kappy says, caches help your Mac run faster.
If you suspect corruption you can delete your user caches without a cache cleaning utility. Just go to
Users/yourname/Library/Caches and delete them.

The first time you use your apps you may notice they are slow until the cache catches up.



-mj

Never heard of that utility but I tend to avoid those "maintenance utilities" almost like the plague.

Safari should limit itself to 10GB cache, and have they added a feature to "empty on exit/quit" yet? it should. It can get out of hand and too large.

I manually delete web browser caches or set them to empty on quit; or set to zero if allowed.

But I never delete USER cache. I DO or did clean and delete system library caches though with Applejack and Leopard Cache Cleaner.

Keep your boot drive in good shape and lots of free space.

When you clone your drive with SuperDuper it skips temp files and caches that are best recreated fresh and does a great job. I do that on a regular basis and it optimizes free space and folder directories as well.