Dig intro cron and other goodies with a set of utility scripts for Panther and Tiger. There’s no Intel version yet and MacJanitor was last updated over a year ago.

#6 - Maintenance

Titanium Software has two of the top free maintenance utilities for Mac OS X.

Maintenance sports the standard fare of repair permissions, run scripts, reset Spotlight and more.

# 5 - Cocktail

This superb little utility has been around awhile so expect to devote time to reading the reviews on Cocktail at MacUpdate.

As with most Mac OS X maintenance utilities, Cocktail is general purpose in the Swiss Army Knife mode.

The lack of brushed aluminum makes it a favorite almost as much as the lengthy list of tools and tweaks.

#4 - ultimateTask

The geekier among us may love the elegance and depth of ultimateTask and a companion product, rootMachine.

Anything that helps me get rid of Dashboard is fine with me.

#3 - MainMenu

High on anyone’s shopping list from Santa is Santa’s MainMenu.

As you might expect, this suite of maintenance utilities sits in OS X’s menu bar.

That means getting a cleaner, healthier, shinier Mac is just a click or two away.

#2 - Onyx

Doing a little more for less (or, the same price, since everything’s free) is Onyx.

No brushed aluminum left over from Panther days, Onyx opens up hidden features, deletes caches and hidden files, and lets you look at logs.

#1 - AppleJack

Frankly, any of the Top 3 could be #1, but AppleJack has a few extras.

Can’t even get Mac OS X to show up on the screen? AppleJack to the rescue in single user mode.

There’s the standard fare of repairing permissions, validating files, and killing corrupt caches.

The Top 5 are ready for Intel Macs, but all seven maintenance utilities are essential tools to keep your Mac running clean, lean, and mean.

Can you pay money and get the same thing? Yes. Among those maintenance utilities with a price tag, I prefer Xupport and Macaroni.

The latter costs less but comes with more stars. The former costs more and does more but has less stars. Your mileage may vary.

What’s your favorite Mac maintenance utilility? Did I miss one that should be on the list? Are these utilities even worth using on your Mac?

Share your thoughts, experience, and favorites with other Mac360 readers in the Comments section below.

Update - I’ve used Cocktail for so long that I mistakenly placed it in my Free List. A license is $15. I plead insanity, which, of course, comes from my child.

Allow me to remove Cocktail from the Top 7 Free Utilities (since it’s not really free, Alexis-- duh), and replace it with the capable Mac HelpMate.

Though relatively new, Mac HelpMate is popular and straightforward with many diagnostic tools, and a unique screen sharing and remote access feature. Highly recommended.

Check out the daily list of our 9 Word mini-Reviews at NoodleMac, and Kate's daily in-depth Mac software reviews at PixoBebo.

• Article by Alexis Kayhill • Published on Friday, October 19, 2007
• Category: Encore Reviews • 6 Reader comment(s) • Email This • Digg This • Shop Now

Page 1 of 1 Page(s) for this article.

« Previously Why I Let Evil Microsoft Control My Mac Life.

Nextly » How To Get Windows Media To Run On Your Mac.

Talk Back to Kate, Ron & the Mac360 staff
Mac360 readers talk back. View their comments below or post your own comment to this article. Comments are moderated by the Mac360 staff. Or, post comments in the Mac360 Forums. It's mostly anonymous, there's no obligation, and no cost, so join in-- it's free, fun, low in calories, low in carbs, non-fat, and mildly addictive-- like chocolate and blondes.

Readers Talk Back:

Jak H. says:

love OnyX---have since v.9xxxx
less is better?

— Posted on Tue Jun 10 at 5:28 pm by Jak H.

willis mcgee says:

Somebody does not know how to use AppleJack. You cannot uninstall it by simply dropping it into the trash. Use the uninstaller. If you’re having trouble, rather than just blast away at the software, which is loved and used by thousands of Mac users, tell us what kind of Mac you have, what system, and so on.

— Posted on Sat Dec 22 at 12:24 pm by willis mcgee

Raymond J. Smith Jr. says:

Apple jack has run havoc on my computer. Even after deletion, it has a pop-up widow concerning its functions. Useless and dangerous is my opinion. I should know better by now that 3rd part software causes more problems then it corrects. Stay Away from AppleJack, it keeps coming back. It is useless and should not be recommended for Macs.

— Posted on Sat Dec 22 at 11:48 am by Raymond J. Smith Jr.

jeffharris says:

Having used both for a while, I prefer Cocktail to Onyx. $15 isn’t much, but I prefer Cocktail’s interface and it’s ability to schedule maintainance. Cocktail seems to be the more compete and mature utility.

With both, you’ve got to dig into the preferences a bit to set up. I set them both to dump everyting except my internet caches. If you fear cookies, you can dump those, too.

ALWAYS restart afer running a utility that dumps cache files!

I also swear by Disk Warrior. At $90 it’s certainly NOT free, but it’s been saving my Macs (and my clients’) for YEARS. From reading the description, it seems like AppleJack might be vaguely comparable.

Generally, I run Cocktail. Reboot with my Disk Warrior disk (or from another hard drive with DW on it). Run Disk Warrior and Restart back with my original hard drive.

— Posted on Sat Oct 20 at 9:15 am by jeffharris

Jack says:

Just a tip on Onyx - don’t let your computer fall into “sleep” mode while running the automator and doing a full optimization. Make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN the computer can NOT fall asleep by opening the energy saver preferences panel and moving the slider to “NEVER”.
Making that mistake destroyed my entire system - even applejack couldn’t be started to resurrect it.
But hey, it’s free And I’m an idiot for running it without thinking about it going to sleep, thinking Onyx would prevent that

— Posted on Sat Sep 01 at 7:55 pm by Jack

Samantha says:

Thanks for the info.
I have macJanitor used it once on my desktop and the next day my logitech optical wireless mouse is now jumpy ( I got the newest uitlitits /new drive just in case for the mouse and it’s still acting up. )
So my question is this actually same as SANDSPUR.
Where to strart and how far to go.
My TiBook def. needs it as well as the macBook.
I have some options ..like these…
applejack,maintenance & onyx.
What’s better, easier and straigthforward ?
Pls. advise.
Thank you.

— Posted on Wed Aug 29 at 4:47 pm by Samantha

Page 1 of 1 Page(s) for Comments on this article.

∧ Back To Top

Talk Back to Mac360 and post your own comment

Your comment may be anonymous if you want (it's OK to use a cute name, or something everyone can remember). An email address is only required if you want to be notified of new comments by other posters, and is always shielded from email spam harvesters.

We moderate the comments, so keep it on topic, relevant, worthy, and funny. Or, pick any two. Yes, SPAM links will be deleted, so don't even think about it.

Talk back and enter your comment below:

Your Name:

Your Email:(optional: needed only for comment notification)

Your Location:(optional: your city, state, country)

Click Here for Smileys

Enter Your Comment Below:

Remember my personal information?
Notify me of follow-up comments by email?

Please enter the Mac360 "Magic Word" from the image below:

∧ Back To Top

What's in the FORUMS?

Newest Daily Topics

Putting together CD for Mac users by High1, 59 views

Overclock your MacPro by BunsenHoneydew, 35 views

Apple has released 10.5.4 by MrSin, 93 views

Bill gates has Xp problems... by BunsenHoneydew, 178 views

Also in Mac360


	Copyright © 2004 - 2008 PanGeo Media, Honolulu, Hawaii USA. All Rights Reserved. Mac360 is published and edited by Ron McElfresh, Honolulu, HI USA. Mac360 is served on an Apple Xserve using Mac OS X Tiger Server. Powered by ExpressionEngine at ServerLogistics.