Just got an 'E' mail from Smith Micro advertising an app. called Spring Cleaning Deluxe. Has anyone used this and if so is it worth buying it?
John Marriott
Don't bother. Leave your Mac on ( even asleep) for a 24 hour period, and you'll be fine. Unless you are horrendously disorganized and forget where you put anything on your Mac, it's not really worth it. If you are an experimenter with apps, use uninstall if it has this option when you delete said experiment. As for backup, I think this is the one that uses StuffIt. Please use time machine, you will thank yourself.
Depending on how good you are at deciphering unix commands, your Mac likes to run a bunch of housekeeping apps from time to time. Next time I'm at your group, raise it as a question and we can all learn about crontab the "at" command, and the bizarre world of timed piping.
As for apps, sometimes when you install an app, it puts an icon in the applications folder, (which is usually a huge bundle of applets under the covers) and then sprays other files it uses or needs around the system in places it expects them to be. It's supposed to be good manners to have your app realize it's been uninstalled and clean up after itself, but many developers don't care, and just leave cruft hanging around. However, it is almost impossible to tell whether a file is needed by a certain app. Which is why, if you wrote it, you should clean it up after...... Demo available next time in the q&a session at your group. ( which one is it?)
There are also a number of very good, FREE 'spring cleaning' apps around - my favourite is Onyx - (Download it HERE) It does most of the things I want, when I want, and I don't have to leave my mac on all night. Nor do I have to venture near the dreaded Terminal.app to work any Unix voodoo.
As for uninstalling, try AppZapper - not free, unfortunately, but cheap, and you 5 free 'zaps' in the trial version ( Download it HERE) It does a great job of hunting down all the little bits of code and files that are left behind when you just drag an app to the trash, and haven't got a bespoke uninstaller.
Thanks everyone I will raise the question at our group meeting because I am sure I am not the only one who is keen to keep their Mac 'clean' from all the rubbish. my group Gordon is Dorchester.
John Marriott
John Marriott 