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Level 1

65 points

I want to clean up my system -- MacKeeper?

I see this MacKeeper whenever I Google cleaning up my Mac. Is it some kind of scam? Some kind of a program that doesn't work? Or is it a decent program that does what it advertises?

And are there other, better programs that help you to clean up your mac? Windows has several very good programs that do this, I was just wondering if Mac has the same. Something to clean out all unused or temp files, icons and images from various Web pages, long unused files, scrape away all data in erased files and in partial clusters etc., and to offer the user opportunities to get rid of very big files the user might not even know exist?

All advice about this very welcome, thanks.

24" iMac Alum 2.66 GHz, 11.6" Macbook Air, Mac OS X (10.6.5), Fusion, Win 7

Posted on Jan 29, 2011 11:52 PM

41 replies

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Jan 30, 2011 6:15 PM in response to thomas_r.

Sorry, Thomas, but where I come from, it is actually illegal (and you will be fined!) to keep your car engine running for more than 60 seconds (such as railroad crossings, road construction stops, etc) - the 60 seconds was in effect when I left the country in 1993; I'd have to find out if that has been changed.

Edit: Should have put a smiley face at the end of my post to make sure everyone understands I'm not taking this all that seriously. But what I said is true...

Message was edited by: Barbara Daniels1

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Jan 30, 2011 6:41 PM in response to babowa

Yes, sad to say that lawmakers often create laws that don't make sense and are not particularly grounded in fact. Fortunately, the laws of physics fall soundly outside their jurisdiction. 😉

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Jan 30, 2011 6:56 PM in response to thomas_r.

Actually, in most of Europe (and Germany in particular), successful efforts at conservation have mostly far exceeded any other countries' efforts. And the (German) cars are - by necessity (partially due to the extremely high cost of gasoline) - manufactured with those concerns in mind. Environmental issues have been considered very serious issues there ever since I was a child - packaging has always been minimal (very little waste) and recycling has been done for many years as well.

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Jan 30, 2011 7:07 PM in response to babowa

I think this conversation is running a bit astray from the point, but conservationists are often no more educated on the science of an issue than the lawmakers are. Not to say that recycling isn't good and cars shouldn't be efficient and that everyone can't do better, but at the same time few environmental issues are as clear-cut as they seem. Hydrogen cars and electric cars are "good for the environment", but where does the power that ultimately is required for both come from? Mostly coal and nuclear. eBooks are environmentally-friendly because they don't kill trees, right?... except the readers have toxic batteries and run off that same mostly coal and nuclear power, while most books are made from at least some recycled materials and/or fast-growing softwoods that are farmed, and are completely renewable resources. It's important to look at all facets, and to bring this back home, it is probably more energy efficient to put your machine to sleep than it is to start it up every morning and shut it down every night (assuming you're using it every day).

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Jan 30, 2011 7:12 PM in response to thomas_r.

+I think this conversation is running a bit astray from the point+

I agree with that and I'm glad we were able to have a friendly discussion about it.....

And, lest I forget, thanks for jumping into that other thread; I thought - obviously mistakenly - that the OP was interested in learning something. Your efforts were exceptional!

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Jan 30, 2011 7:19 PM in response to babowa

I agree with that and I'm glad we were able to have a friendly discussion about it.....

Yup... too bad those sorts of discussions aren't encouraged here, I kind of enjoy talking about that sort of thing... I'm sure you couldn't tell! 😉

And, lest I forget, thanks for jumping into that other thread; I thought - obviously mistakenly - that the OP was interested in learning something. Your efforts were exceptional!

Thanks! That was an amusing thread. 🙂

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Jan 30, 2011 8:04 PM in response to babowa

Barbara, I'm not getting started again on sleep vs. shutdown redux (I've had quite enough of that one) but there was an extremely interesting article in The New Yorker a few weeks back (12/20/10) on the idea that as we become more efficient in using energy, energy consumption, quite counter-intuitively, may in some situations actually rise, thereby completely offsetting any gains -- even, possibly, end up making things worse. This phenomenon is called The Jevons Paradox. Unfortunately, no longer up on the site, but here is a link to the abstract of the article.

The Efficiency Dilemma
If our machines use less energy, will we just use them more?

In other words, to save the planet everyone should drive a Hummer!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/20/101220fafactowen

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jan 30, 2011 8:05 PM in response to WZZZ

There were a couple of letters in a later issue (1/17), claiming fallacies in the original article.

They claim most of the increases were actually related to population and GDP growth, and use +per capita+ was in fact reduced.

One (a professor of economics at Tufts) says US energy consumption rose 31% between 1975 and 2009, while the U.S. population grew 42%, and real income per capita rose 87%.

babowa

Level 9

78,103 points

Jan 30, 2011 8:13 PM in response to WZZZ

I certainly agree with that and thanks for the link. I think the debate will go on for decades....

Back on topic - I wonder if the OP has left the building?

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Jan 30, 2011 8:26 PM in response to Pondini

Yes, it is certainly true that exponential population growth, with that increased population worldwide having ever accelerating access to limited natural resources, is unsustainable. Whether Jevons was right or not, we won't solve that one alone with energy efficiency. (Viz. China, India etc. Case in point: what's been happening to the price of gas this winter when reduced seasonal driving in North America and Europe should have been bringing it down; instead it's been going up.)

Oct 5, 2011 8:25 PM in response to Pondini

Hi there,

I live in Australia, and usually power my Mac off at night. I have read that Mac does its own internal 'clean-ups' 'early am local time'. Whose local time?! Is that the time zone for the US? How can I find out when that sort of maintenance goes on for the East coast of Australia? That way I can leave it on sleep mode for that time, say once a week.

(Mac Pro tower, Snow Leopard 10.6.8)

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Oct 6, 2011 3:38 AM in response to dinglydell

"Local time" means the time on your computer. Note, though, that those scripts are quite unimportant these days. Those clean-up scripts are a bit of a leftover from the Mac's Unix server roots.

BTW, rather than resurrect a topic that hasn't been posted on in 8 months, it would be best to start your own topic in the future.

Oct 6, 2011 3:58 PM in response to thomas_r.

Thanks for that. OK, get the point about the topic. I just thought if I started a new topic people would point me to this one! Anyway, thanks.

Nov 10, 2011 9:14 AM in response to Pier Rodelon

Beware! MacKeeper is such a SCAM. You can do most anything listed with the built in utilities already on your Mac. Invest in products like Alsoft® Disk Warrior, Onyx and "What Size Is It" utilities. The free app "Apple Jack" is very effective also. Don't waste your money.

MacKeeper shamelessly uses pop-up adds to lure unsuspecting Mac newbies to buy its products. Don't do it!

Network 23

Level 6

12,333 points

Dec 21, 2011 10:19 AM in response to babowa

While DiskWarrior is excellent software, it basically has just one major feature that you pay $99 for: fixing the disk directory better than Apple Disk Utility can. This means it won't fix most of the problems that happen on a Mac. Also, I've found that I need DiskWarrior a lot less since OS X started implementing features like journaling that minimize disk directory corruption in the first place. I highly recommend DiskWarrior if a bad disk directory is the specific problem, but if you want to save some money and fix more stuff I would go with the AppleJack recommendation earlier. And probably Onyx. Those two will run you about $0 total.

And don't bother with MacKeeper.

babowa wrote:

You generally do not have to do the same type of cleaning; I do clear browser caches/history regularly, but other than that, the Mac OS takes care of itself. Some of the "cleaning" utilities do more harm than good.

It's generally recommended that you repair permissions after any software update or install and, if there is some unexplained behavior, there is an excellent utility called "Disk Warrior" - I run that occasionally; you can take a look here:

http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/

I want to clean up my system -- MacKeeper?