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I have a new Imac and was wondering if MacKeeper software would be a good thing to have installed on my computer or will it slow down my Mac and create problems? I am not having any problems with my computer at this time.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.1)
Do not install MacKeeper. It will cause you no end of problems. You do not need that software on your Mac!!!
It will slow the drive down to a crawl, cause your apps to crash. Bad news all the way around.
Your iMac can run maintenance tasks for you. Leave the iMac on overnight (not in Sleep mode) once night a month.
Read here > Mac OS X: About background maintenance tasks
And, for future reference:
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.1 or higher are Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. Versions 1.5.1 or later are Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts had been significantly reduced in Tiger and Leopard. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc. Other utilities are also available such as Onyx, Leopard Cache Cleaner, CockTail, and Xupport, for example.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
Super Flexible File Synchronizer
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
Carolyn Samit wrote:
Your iMac can run maintenance tasks for you. Leave the iMac on overnight (not in Sleep mode) once night a month.
Actually, since Mac OS X 10.6, your computer can be in sleep mode and the maintenance routines will run as soon as you waken it. They just don't run if the computer is shut down when they are scheduled to run.
danyork1341 wrote:
I have a new Imac and was wondering if MacKeeper software would be a good thing to have installed on my computer or will it slow down my Mac and create problems? I am not having any problems with my computer at this time.
If you are not having problems you don't need anything along these lines.
As for MacKeeper, read this Beware MacKeeperand decide for yourself. Includes free/low cost alternatives if you ever do have problems.
Do not install it at any cost. 😟
Is MacKeeper software recommended and safe?
