They are not required and could cause the performance of your computer to drop. You should avoid any other third-party software advertised as providing anti-malware/virus protection. Detecting and avoiding malware and spywareįor general anti-virus protection I recommend only using ClamXav, but it is not necessary if you are keeping your computer's operating system software up to date.

Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection:Ģ. To assure proper protection, update your system software when Apple releases new OS X updates for your computer. Starting with Lion, Apple has included built-in malware protection that is automatically updated as necessary. Malware ProtectionĪs for malware protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive except when trying to install Boot Camp on a fragmented drive. ( These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion and should not be installed.) Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced after Tiger. If you are using a pre-Leopard version of OS X, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. If you are running Leopard or later these tasks are run automatically, so there is no need to use any third-party software to force running these tasks.

The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) See Mac OS X- About background maintenance tasks. OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period.

Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior for defragmentation of older drives, disk repair, disk scans, formatting, partitioning, disk copy, and benchmarking.įour outstanding sources of information on Mac maintenance are: For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utility is: Disk Warrior DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption.

Kappy's Personal Suggestions About Mac Maintenanceįor disk repairs use Disk Utility. Typically, none, unless you have a problem.

Computer maintenance for mac