MacTricksAndTips Daily Email, Today: Ten Tool Apps To Have For Your Mac & More

Posted: 13 Jan 2013 09:00 AM PST

Hey,

Like your car, house or other expensive object, you need to keep it maintained to keep it in tip top condition. To do this you use a variety of tools to keep it maintained. Your Mac is no different. This post is about ten tools which you can download to use to keep your Apple Mac in tip, top condition. Although your Mac is pretty good at keeping itself in working order, these tools are useful in keeping your Mac running at it’s most efficient. Most of these tools can also be used to solve a variety of problems, used infrequently they can get the most our of your computer. The list is in no particular order.

Gemini

One of my most useful apps at the moment, Gemini is used for finding duplicate files. Having gone through a large hard drive of all files, its amazing how many of them are duplicates and repeats. Gemini cuts through your files and finds the ones that are the same. I have reviewed Gemini previously and I recommend this app if you ever have the need of getting rid of pesky duplicates.

Drag the folder you want to scan on the big drop arrow.

MacPilot

On MacTricksAndTips I post many terminal tricks, to offer access to hidden and unused settings. MacPilot gets around this problem of manually doing all the work by giving you a list of hidden settings which you can alter. The easy to use interface allows you to change many settings that you previously didn’t know existed. There is a variety of different settings which you can change. A quick method to change how your mac looks and works with a simple click. With something like 1200 settings, you have plenty to change.

MacPilot allows you to change a myriad of settings.

CleanMyMac

CleanMyMac, along with Clean Genius Pro and MacCleanse, all offer the same basic features, cleaning your Mac of all of the unwanted files that seem to hang around. Coupled with Gemini you can really clean up your hard drive and get rid of all of the files that you never needs. These apps are a great way of freeing up disk space and making sure you you don’t have any files hanging around that you really don’t need.

AppCleaner

Although you can drag and drop an app into the Trash to remove it, this method does leave behind many files which will persist on your system. I recommend a tool such as AppCleaner

A pretty drag and drop interface to get rid of those surplus files.

to remove these extra files. Instead of dragging the file to the trash, you drag it into this app and it will clean up all of the associated files that belong with your app. A great way of getting rid of apps and removing all of the left over files.

Unzipper

If you browse the web a lot, you will come across files that are not packaged in the normal .zip format. Some are in .rar and even other complex file compression files formats. An app recommend to me is unzipper, which can extract all of these files. The Unarchiver, is another app which has the same functionality.

Caffeine

Caffeine keeps people awake. Caffeine app keeps your Mac awake. The small menu bar tool allows you to keep your Mac awake and prevent it from going into sleep mode. I don’t use caffeine all that frequently however it is very useful when you don’t want your screensaver to appear and keep your mac awake.

Caffeine keeps your Mac awake and prevents it from going into sleep mode.

Daisy Disk

I love Daisy Disk. It provides a top down view of your Mac, allowing you to see where the disk space is being used. If you find your Mac is running out of space, or you think a folder is taking up to much room, Daisy Disk is a great way of seeing where the files are being storage in a graphical, visual way. Its a quick and useful way of seeing which folders need slimming down.

Daisy Disk visually shows you where all of the files on your Mac reside.

1Password

Passwords need to be kept secure, each one also needs to be kept unique. 1Password allows you to store and generate secure passwords for the websites you use. A great way of making sure your online passwords, are long, complicated but easily retrieved.

Main Menu

Running background tasks and cleaning up your Mac features heavily on this list. One of the best tools is MainMenu, its designed to run from your menu bar and provides you with a quick way to delete caches, free up memory, clear histories and clipboard. Its an easy way to access a variety of tools and tasks from your menu bar. An app I highly recommend.

Run a variety of tasks, straight from your menu bar.

Raskin

Last but by no means least is Raskin. I have previously reviewed this app. It is more than a tool, it is a way of interacting and working with your Mac. It allows you to access files and folders quickly and can significantly speed up the way you work and see files and folders on your Mac. A great tool.

Raskin allows you to interact with files in a different way

Although these are ten tools which I recommend you download, there are many out there. If you have a favourite please leave a comment.

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Sunday, January 13, 2013