MacKeeper 2.8 Review
How much you should do to keep your Mac environment (and hard drive) tidy and uncluttered is a matter of much debate amongst Apple users. Some claim that OS X is so good at looking after itself that routine maintenance is unnecessary.
I’ll be honest from the start: I disagree with this stance. Yes, I come from a Windows background where occasionally running Disk Cleanup and other tools is routine, but I genuinely believe that Macs need a little bit of TLC too.
As such, I’m a bit of a fan of MacKeeper. I reviewed it some time ago, but there are now plenty of new features, so I thought I’d take a fresh look at it.
MacKeeper now includes 16 different tools for the Mac operating system. As before, my first port of call when I installed the software was the “Fast Cleanup” option – the closest equivalent to the Windows Disk Cleanup tool that removes superfluous binaries, caches and logs.
Now, you will find people who say there’s no need to remove these files, but I think it’s good to have a clear out, especially with Apple increasingly moving towards SSD drives with smaller capacities. As you can see from the screenshot below, MacKeeper found 1.6GB of unnecessary junk on my MacBook Pro – if I only had a 128GB SSD, I’d be very keen to get back that amount of drive space.
Of course, there’s lots more to MacKeeper than this. The cleanup tools go far beyond the “fast cleanup” option. There’s also a powerful duplicate finder, which is very useful for identifying multiple copies of files taking up space, and a handy usage section that quickly shows you what types of files are taking up space. As before, I would caution that these are powerful features that could be dangerous in inexperienced hands!
The new MacKeeper includes some useful optimisation tools including an update tracker and control of login items and file associations. Yes, there are other places to achieve these aims, but it’s useful to see them all together.
There are also utilities galore: data encryption, backup, file shredding, antivirus and antitheft. There is some duplication of existing Mac functionality, but we like how MacKeeper ties everything together, and REALLY like the tutorials and step-by-step guidance for each feature.
As I stated at the start, there are people who will tell you you don’t need a suite of utilities for your Mac. I’m not going to join the debate. All I will say is that I’ve been working in the IT business for over a decade, and I use it on my own Mac. That should be taken as a recommendation!