Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends
Put a stop to pesky hidden files with BlueHarvest
Do you see all sorts of ".ds_store" and "._" files lying around on your external drive when you plug it into a Windows machine? Like this MacOSXHints reader, did you browse your company's network with your Mac, leaving a trail of ._ds_store and .Trash files in your wake? If you're nodding your head right now, I think I've found the solution for you: BlueHarvest, a preference pane that lets you manage and easily clean up these various kinds of Mac OS X-specific hidden files.
BlueHarvest allows you to specify where these hidden files are created, offering different drive categories (startup disk, Servers, non-HFS disks, etc.) and allowing you to specify volumes and folders to leave alone. It even has a slick preference tab for drag and drop cleaning of .DS_Store files and resource forks from disks and directories.
I've been playing with this for a couple days now and I have to say: it's pretty handy. I have a little flash drive I use for school and a SonyEricsson phone that I can mount on my Mac, both of which I can *finally* say are truly devoid of pesky hidden files. BlueHarvest works on 10.3.9 and 10.4.x, offers a 30 day trial and costs a mere $10 - small price to pay to regain your hidden file sanity.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mac Diva said 2:29PM on 2-15-2006
Clarification please. What do you mean by "Mac OSX-specific"? Files from Apple or files from third parties? Both? It is hidden files from third parties that I worry about more. For example, the recent install of Weatherbug (suggested here) turned out to be invisible files. I'm still not sure Weatherbug is really gone from my drive.
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matt said 2:30PM on 2-15-2006
hmm this used to be free i have been using it for a while now and it works a treat on gettin rid of pesky .ds_store files on my sony ericsson v800 when i add a new theme or rigntone with my mac.
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Dave said 2:34PM on 2-15-2006
According to the IMDB (Trivia for Return of the Jedi) concerning the title of this app:
For security reasons, when the film was sent to the lab, it was sent under the title "Blue Harvest". The title was inspired by the Dashiell Hammett story "Red Harvest", which was the inspiration for Yojimbo (1961), directed by Akira Kurosawa, one of the favorite directors of George Lucas. When you go to www.blueharvest.com, you're get the official Star Wars website.
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Jack Brewster said 2:36PM on 2-15-2006
I'm a recent half-switcher :)
I've been wondering about those files for awhile. I know I could probably Google it, but what's the point of those files in the first place?
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fra said 2:45PM on 2-15-2006
Why does OSX make the DS files anyway?
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Eliot Phillips said 3:18PM on 2-15-2006
Do you have a tip for how to keep them from being copied into zip files? I'm not a Mac user but I've gotten plenty of .DS files via zip archives.
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David Chartier said 3:19PM on 2-15-2006
These files are hidden files that OS X uses to store various kinds of information and preferences, such as folder-specific window sizes, view settings and icon sizes, etc. Windows uses hidden files to do relatively the same thing, it's just that by default Windows doesn't reveal its own hidden files, and in the same way (by default) you can't see OS X's hidden files on a Mac.
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Christoph said 4:12PM on 2-15-2006
How do you mount your SonyEricsson phone on the mac?
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matt said 4:24PM on 2-15-2006
chrisoph i use the usb cable that came with my phone and just drag and drop. there is no official SE software for mac though :-(
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Stucco said 4:56PM on 2-15-2006
Umm. Lets see, $10 for this, or http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301711 for free? Selling a skin app to config system settings is ballsy.
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james said 6:32AM on 2-17-2006
Hi Stucco - not sure about you, but running that terminal script doesn't affect the finder's interaction with my mounted usb drives (including my w800i). As far as I was aware, it only works with networked servers...
I haven't tested BlueHarvest yet, but if it also stops these files on mounted drives, then great!
Unless you know how to configure that in the terminal also?
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