Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends, Freeware, Troubleshooting, Terminal Tips
Freeware Find: IceClean 3.0b
Most of us know that we should perform regular maintenance on our Macs, usually simple things such as doing backups and shaking pizza crumbs out of the keyboard. But did you know that there are a number of UNIX System Tasks that are available for keeping your Mac running at peak performance?A lot of Mac users don't want to pull up Terminal and type arcane text into the command line, so MacDentro has a GUI front end that you can use to run those commands and keep your Mac cruisin'. IceClean, now at version 3.0.6 has menus for OS X Maintenance, Cleanup, Security and Network, and Utilities, all of which are packed with menu choices or keyboard shortcut equivalents that make mundane maintenance chores simple to perform.
There are other apps available -- Maintenance and MacJanitor come to mind -- that perform similar tasks, but neither of those programs comes close to the depth of capability of IceClean.
The price is right, too - it's free, although you might want to send the MacDentro folks a donation if you find yourself using IceClean regularly. Download IceClean here.
Tip of the hat to our very own Victor Agreda for this find!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kakapo said 12:19PM on 6-05-2008
What about OnyX? Price is right - free and within a few days of an Op Sys upgrade - there is a new version of OnyX waiting to be downloaded.
I have looked at many "maintenance" apps and have found OnyX to do a very good job on all of our Macs in the house, lab and offices. And that is a heap of free!
;)
Cheers
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Peter said 1:21PM on 6-05-2008
Let's see :
SpotLight indexing : What is it ? Why would I want it ?
Full System Profiler : standard on every Mac.
Advanced System Maintenance & Cleanup :
for my Unix maintenance jobs I only use Macaroni ( http://www.atomicbird.com/macaroni ) : just install & forget, you never have to think of them ever again. Period.
Quick & Full CD/DVD Erase : Disk Utility.
Network State & Traceroute :
my network & hardware monitor : iStat Pro widget.
What would you possibly want with Traceroute ? Seriously!
Dashboard on/off : oh please ...
... and more ... : tell me ! The documentation link is dead.
Nice looking site though ...
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JonO said 1:41PM on 6-12-2008
Yeah, weird...all those navigation links are just images...of text...with no links. What the hell?
Michael said 1:27PM on 6-05-2008
"But did you know that there are a number of UNIX System Tasks that are available for keeping your Mac running at peak performance?"
Yes, I did. AFAIK, under Leopard these are run by launchd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launchd
Is there some system task that isn't? If so, what is it?
"A lot of Mac users don't want to pull up Terminal and type arcane text into the command line"
We haven't yet established that they need to. But, if there are commands that they do need to issue, and if typing is really too much of a chore, can't they keep a list of the commands they need to issue in a text document and paste them into the Terminal? Is copying and pasting somehow viewed as "difficult" by some users?
I've no reason to doubt the _bona_ _fides_ of the developer whose product TUAW is recommending. But, then again, I've no reason not to, and, in general, I prefer not to download third-party software unless I've reason to trust the source -- and unless I know I need the software. And that would seem to be in line with what Apple advises.
But, on the one hand, TUAW has actually implied that this does *nothing* for me that I couldn't already do for myself in a different program that ships with the OS, and, on the other, I've been given no reason to think it even does anything that doesn't happen automatically _via_ launchd.
I'd rather not leave a "negative" comment, but I'm utterly mystified by this post, by the lack of information in it, and by the attitudes it takes.
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Vince said 1:43PM on 6-05-2008
I tried it and it worked well enough for me...
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julian said 2:14PM on 6-05-2008
gee most of these comments are rude
I have onyx too
can anyone tell me the difference between iceclean and onyx?
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Scott Kaiser said 2:11PM on 6-05-2008
I'm not as technically minded as these other comments, so I have to ask: Why is a utility like this (or the other ones mentioned) even needed at all?
Specifically, what sort of performance or other benefits will I see by using them.
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Scott Kaiser said 2:13PM on 6-05-2008
Oh... and while I'm asking, has anyone heard of one called MainMenu? It was recommended to me.
I tried Onyx once, but I really didn't know what it was doing so I didn't feel comfortable using it.
Word. said 3:12PM on 6-05-2008
What an utter pile of crap. Whilst a lot of mac utility programs do admittedly do little more than package terminal commands into a gui, this one is utter garbage. All utility options are started through menus, meaning that the actual window has no use except traceroute or opening up external programs.
This program has nothing of merit, just get onyx and save yourself the bother.
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RobK said 6:03PM on 6-05-2008
Since many people forget to run the unix maintenance scripts I like apps that do this automatically for you.
Yes there is Macaroni.. But why pay $ when there are apps that will do the same thing for free.
Check out:
anacron -- http://members.cox.net/18james/anacron.html
And PseudoAnacron --
http://www.jaw.it/pages/en/x_misc.html
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wjmoore said 8:36PM on 6-05-2008
Macworld: Five Mac maintenance myths
http://www.macworld.com/article/133684/2008/06/maintenance_intro.html
Number 2: “You need to run the Unix maintenance scripts.”
It's not necessary.
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RobK said 7:39AM on 6-06-2008
Read the article:
"Leopard is smart enough to run the missed scripts the next time you wake up your computer. (Tiger is supposed to do so, as well, although this automatic feature didn’t work as well.)"
In other words, if you are running Leopard, don't worry. But if you are still running Tiger or earlier, there are still benefits in running these scripts regularly especially of you regularly use the command line. Even if you are not using the command line, there are benefits in making sure these unix maintenance scripts run as they delete unnecessary temporary files and logs.
Personally, I have found that on many occasions my computer runs faster after these scripts are run.
I also like to manually run these these unix maintenance scripts before and after a Mac OS X Update. Running them before a Mac OS X update gets rids of unnecessary temporary files etc. Running them afterwards is a good idea so that the locate and whatis databases are properly updated to reflect all the changes made by the Mac OS X update. These databases are important for those command line users.
Victor Agreda Jr said 9:29AM on 6-06-2008
I get the feeling some of y'all are real experts, so yeah, get your fingers dirty probing the depths of Terminal.
I still can't get my wife to use Cmd-Q to quit apps, therefore I needed a simple tool to help her (Tiger) machine once in a while.
And yes, sometimes you DO need to run these. As they said in Ghostbusters, "sometimes s*** happens, and who you gonna call?" (or words to that effect, and it was Ghostbusters 2, but whatever). I've used this to help troubleshoot issues, and I'm well aware of Onyx. You say tomato... etc.
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Christina Warren said 4:14PM on 6-06-2008
Personally, I like it! Yes, I could do most of it myself from the command line but not having to do that is always a plus. And while I liked Onyx, the whole "deletes home folders" bug from the last version pretty much guaranteed that I will never, under any circumstances, use that again (I had a very recent backup, but otherwise, I would have been seething).
Rob Bruce said 12:53PM on 6-06-2008
I downloaded and used this program yesterday... now my brand new Imac is virtually useless. It has frozen three times this morning already. UGHHHH!
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