Mac OS X Maintenance

The Maintenance for the latest Mac OS 10.13 had become much easier than the past.
Due to the design of the OS (Operating System), Defragging is not required.
The following is a simplified description. Mac and Linux are like a filing drawer and when you give it a command, it takes a copy. When you are done, the computer dumps it. This means it does NOT need to be defragged. Windows operating systems is like a web and when you give it a command, it pulls out of the web what it needs and puts it back somewhere on the outer edge. This means it needs to be defragged, to be put back in a good organized order.

What Can We Do?

There are several things we can do. Most computer technicians do not want you to know about the following things.

Here are a few things you can do:

• removal of unused software
• have an anti-virus program just so that you do not pass them on
• avoid or remove all tool bars
• avoid or remove all downloaded performance software
• avoid or remove all downloaded driver update software
• avoid or remove unsafe remote access software
• use Ccleaner to clean up the computer

How do we implement these?

In the following steps, I will give you the basics, as the details depend on the equipment that you have.

Software Removal

This is the first step in clean up.

For those of you that did not know, you can delete any program through the Control Panel. It depends on which version, as to the next steps you take. Something that most people do not know, is that most programs may still have a directory below Program Files, which also needs to be further deleted as a second step. It is always wise to remove unused programs, tool bars (most if not all, are spyware or malware), performance programs, drive update programs and most third party remote access programs. Most of them only do you more harm to the Window operating system or put you at security risks. At this point, I only trust Teamviewer for remote access. With this program, you need to give the IT person permission and you can cancel them if you don't like what you see them doing. Most other programs do not give you that control over your own computer.

Computer Software Cleaning

There are many areas of your hard drive that need to be cleaned up, such as dead files, temporary files, out-dated files, etc.

1) When you use a program such as Ccleaner, its default setting is safe to use. It knows what to look for and cleans them out. It leaves your own files alone. And it gives you a report of how much it cleaned and where it was located. This process should be done after removing the unwanted and hazardous programs. It is recommended that you do cleaning about once a month.

2) Then I would make sure all the programs are no longer running. At this time turn on Disk Utility. Make sure your main hard drive is selected, just incase you have more than one. Then very simply press the "First Aid" icon in the top row.

Maintenance Summary

In short, we all can easily take care of our computers to last longer! With all of the above steps, we can protect our computer and increase its life, and without very much inconvenience, or time, or cost! It takes very little work to prevent future problems. With all of this it will never be 100% safe, but it is so much better then being totally at risk! Do not hesitate to contact me, for greater details. I can help you set this all up or even explain how to do it yourself.

Happy Surfing!