Download iMac Cleaning Tool for Free

There is no point in getting frustrated with my slow iMac. When it acts up, my first instinct is to delete a few applications and software to free up space on the disk; that never really helps. My iMac has hidden data and apps taking up space on the disk that need to be manually removed for it to run smoothly, or so I am told – or I could use an iMac cleanup tool to do the job for me.

Some programs automatically (or ask) to be set as “Login Items,” so they open every time your computer boots up or you log in. You can view your login items list by clicking the Apple menu, then System Preferences, then Accounts, and then Login Items. You may be surprised at how long this list is! To remove an item, select its name and click the “-” button at the bottom of the list. However, make sure you know what you're removing; otherwise, you might find yourself missing some important functionality the next time you start up.

While you're in System Preferences, take a look at some of the others. Apple kindly includes many very useful features as preferences, but some may not apply to you, such as Universal Access (help for visually or hearing impaired users) or Bluetooth (enabling certain devices to connect wirelessly). If you don't use these, make sure they're turned off; this will save you some precious RAM and processor resources.

There could be other things chewing up processor cycles or consuming memory. How would you know? By using Apple's Activity Monitor, which is part of Mac OS X. Activity Monitor shows you CPU usage, memory usage, virtual-memory swapping, and whether an application is a PowerPC or Intel (Universal) build. Check it occasionally for red flags – or run it for a few days (enable a useful Dock icon or floating window) to monitor for spikes.

No matter how big your hard drive is, eventually it will fill up – whether from a huge iPhoto library, a video you're editing, or just a lot of stuff that's accumulated over time. (One colleague was mystified as to why her hard drive was so full until she discovered that she hadn't emptied her Trash in almost four years!) You may not realize that Mac OS X (as well as the Classic Mac OS) uses free space on your hard drive as “virtual memory,” and depends on this virtual memory to run efficiently. If your computer seems sluggish, an overly full hard drive could be the reason.

When my iMac is running slow, one of the usual solutions is to run a cleanup tool like CleanGenius. It's a handy all-in-one utility that quickly cleans up junk files on your Mac, shows available disk space, and monitors disk space usage. It keeps your Mac performing at its peak.

Notable features of CleanGenius include:

Clean Mac Quickly: Keep your Mac healthy and free up more disk space. With a single click in Utilities, all junk files (System Caches, User Caches, System Logs, User Logs, User Downloads, Trash, Safari Internet Cache, etc.) will be deleted in seconds.

Monitor disk space: It shows your available disk space and alerts you when it's running low. You can then free up space by cleaning or moving files to keep your Mac running smoothly.

Eject: Use this to eject mounted volumes, such as external storage drives, CDs and DVDs, SuperDrives, network storage, and disk images.

Browser plug-in cleanup: Supports cleaning and removal of plug-ins, cache, and cookies from browsers such as Safari, Chrome, or Firefox. Your browsing history, bookmarks, and downloaded files will not be cleaned.

CleanMyMac: Uninstalls apps and their components, preferences, logs, and other files safely and thoroughly. Just select an app and click to remove it, along with any extras that came with it.

Duplicate File Finder: Duplicate files with the same content waste precious disk space. CleanGenius can easily locate and remove duplicate files to reclaim wasted disk space.

Disk Usage: Visualize the size of your files and folders, and delete unnecessary large files to free up more disk space.

Free up RAM: When your Mac is low on free memory, you can easily use CleanGenius to free up RAM and speed up your Mac for better performance.

Manage Startup Items: Some infrequently used apps might launch at startup and slow down your Mac. If you wish to prevent certain apps from launching at startup, just open CleanGenius and disable the annoying startup items.