Do you want a faster MAC? It is hard to find some MAC owner who will answer this question with anything but a sincere “I Do”, but we sometimes forget to show our feelings, due to negligence or laziness. I confess that I’ve been one of those guys, who took his computer for granted and expected the same outstanding performance, without doing anything. For a while everything went silky smooth, but without me even noticing the applications started to run slower, errors popped up every now and then and even delay became a problem.
To wait for a miracle and hope that things will get better without me doing anything is not the kind of approach I like to take in life, so there I was searching the internet for a possible solution. My expertise with computers is limited, but I know just enough to fear viruses and other malware, while realizing the negative impact that cluttered registries have on the system. I’ve talked to some friends who have a similar understanding of these matters and they suggested me to install an antivirus and a registry cleaner.
I had an antivirus, but unfortunately it never detected anything and for a while I though that’s because my computer is crystal clear. Armed with these recommendations I jumped online to search for a good antivirus and a registry cleaner and I was even willing to pay for them. I’ve stumbled upon various products both free and paid, but among the names that appeared with a higher frequency was MacKeeper.
What I liked about this product was that it incorporates an antivirus and a registry mechanic, at a price that was better than most similar products bought individually. I was not reluctant to pay for a quality product, but since there are so many free software I decided to try the trial version first. Much to my surprise, the trial period didn’t restrict my access and I was able to browse through all the features and use them freely. I have to admit with a great deal of shame, that my attention was diverted instantly by the Fast Cleanup button, which proclaimed that it will clean my MAC quickly and safely.
Cleaning cache and binaries was something I understood right away, but when I’ve been asked about clearing languages and logs I was a bit surprised. The best thing when you encounter something that is not perfectly clear and it implies deletion of files, is to investigate the issue. That’s exactly what I did and fortunately, these features were harmless yet beneficial as they allow you to get rid of useless languages from applications and outdated user log files.
Like a snowball, my interest grew and was aroused by the other features incorporated in the cleaning section, such as Disk Usage, Duplicate Finder and Files Finder. I consider myself to be a neat person and like to keep the applications in order, but even so, I found some programs that were not supposed to be there. I can only imagine what these applications would find on my sister’s machine, but for the time being I used them on my beloved MAC to free some space.
As soon as the Fast Cleanup reached the conclusion, a long list of junk files appeared, waiting to be deleted. The advantage of being a pessimist is that you always have pleasant surprises and that’s exactly how I felt when being allowed to fix all those problems right away. In an overwhelming majority of cases, you are presented with the errors and instructed to buy the full product to be able to get rid off them. Now, this doesn’t inspire me a lot of confidence, since I can’t tell for sure if these are made up, to make be buy the software, or are really there.
I’ve got into such a cleaning frenzy that I almost forgot about the main reason I was here for, and that was to scan my computer for viruses. Located in the security section, the antivirus protects the MAC against both malware and spyware, which I found to be a relief, since I was positive that my old antivirus only dealt with viruses. I decided to choose the in-depth scan even though it took longer, so I would explore the other features while the scan was under way.
The first that caught my eye was the one sharing the security section, namely Anti-Theft. I was very amused initially, because I assumed that unless the laptop will release an electric charge or trigger a remote alarm the second it is stolen, the application is useless. In fact, it functions on a very simple principle, locating your device when it goes online and announce you about it, so you can notify the police. Very exciting is the ability to take snapshots of the thief and send them to you as well.
I was already in the optimization section, learning how to speed up the computer’s boot time, when the antivirus announced the end of the scanning process. The result was me praising and cursing my former antivirus at the same time, because although it kept my computer virus-free, it allowed the spyware to infest it. Wiping out all these threats didn’t take long and I’ve barely refrained myself from restarting right away to see the benefits.
Since I was already exploring the prospect of reducing the applications that launch on start, when the scan ended, I returned to the section and solved the problem. Most of the programs were not being used daily, so I got rid of them and also used the Update tracker function, to bring the rest of the applications up to date. To cut to the chase, I’ve restarted the MAC and watched in disbelief how little time it took for it to boot and how fast the computer ran after that.
The data control section with all the free tools available to maintain the privacy of sensitive information, to retrieve the ones deleted by mistake or remove forever certain programs, was nothing more than an incentive. I’ve bought MacKeeper the same day and I am using it ever since and it never gave me a reason to look any further. I can’t say for sure if there are better products, in terms of either efficiency or price, because I was so happy with this product, that I never considered the search should continue.
Also check this software for Mac recovery and Mac data recovery.
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