First Look: Spring Cleaning 10, Mac OS X utility
updated 06:30 am EDT, Sun September 21, 2008
Spring Cleaning 10
To run at maximum efficiency, every Mac needs periodic maintenance. While Mac OS X comes with built-in utilities that run automatically early every morning, your Mac needs to be running (not in Sleep mode) for these programs to work. You can always run the built-in Mac OS X utilities manually by typing in the proper commands, but a faster, more comprehensive solution is to use a separate utility program like Smith-Micro’s Spring Cleaning 10 instead.
The main focus of this utility is to provide tools for removing unnecessary files off your hard disk, which can speed up your Mac at the same time. Manually deleting files can be cumbersome since you have to search for them and determine which ones you don’t really need. To automate this process, this utility offers an AccessMonitor feature that can automatically identify which files you haven’t last accessed after a fixed period of time, such as the last three months.
Rather than delete files based on time, you can also choose to delete specific types of files such as PowerPoint (.ppt), Photoshop (.psd), or Pages (.pages) documents.
Another way to delete files is to uninstall applications. To insure that you delete all files associated with a particular app, you can run the MacUninstaller. If you receive file attachments by e-mail, you can delete these files by running the MailCleaner feature.
One of the more unique ways of saving hard disk space is through the Universal Application Finder, which searches for apps that contain both Intel and PowerPC code. If you have an Intel Mac, you can strip out PowerPC code from all your apps. If you have a PowerPC Mac, you can strip out all Intel code from your apps. This essentially cuts the size of Universal Applications in half.
Another way to trim out useless files is by eliminating foreign language files. If you won’t ever need to use the French, German, or Spanish version of a particular app, strip away these foreign files and save space without affecting your program.
Besides stripping away different files to free up space, this utility also offers features to make maintaining your Mac easier. Instead of forcing you to type commands to run the Mac OS X built-in maintenance programs, this app provides a simple icon so you can run these maintenance programs with a click of the mouse.
If your Mac has broken alias links, permissions, or damaged files, this utility can search and remove them to make your Mac run more reliably. For added security, the utility offers a secure file deletion feature that scrambles the blank space of your hard disk. This insures that any deleted files get wiped so no one can try to recover them without your knowledge.
Spring Cleaning 10 offers a variety of tools for freeing up hard disk space and maintaining you Mac to run at its optimum efficiency and its $49.99 price makes it affordable and indispensable for nearly everyone who owns a Mac.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2003
Not entirely true
"While Mac OS X comes with built-in utilities that run automatically early every morning, your Mac needs to be running (not in Sleep mode) for these programs to work."
Uhm, this has not been the case for a while now... I know it's fixed in Leopard, not sure about Tiger...