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CleanMyMac releases solid update at no charge to current users
CleanMyMac has been a powerful tool for Mac maintenance for a long time. CleanMyMac 2 has just arrived, and it is even more powerful than previous versions. The app now has an auto-cleanup function that looks for non-needed files and cleans them up, not by simply deleting them, perish the thought, but by asking you first. The app also removes old logs and caches, and can take a significant whack at your iPhoto library by deleting master copies of previously edited photos. CleanMyMac 2 has also applied a fresh and more direct GUI making some of the more complex operations simpler. The app can also uninstall apps no longer being used, and hunt for unused extensions and control panels. I have used the original for quite some time, and I expected the latest version to have an upgrade cost. Nope. It's free for current users. The company also provides a trial version which allows you to remove up to 500 MB of stuff for free. %Gallery-180638% I tried the latest version after a quick run of the older version. On my 1 TB hard drive version 2 still found 1.5 gigs of things to get rid of. Obviously, CleanMyMac 2 has gotten smarter about finding junk. There are many utilities around to maintain and clean a Mac. Some are free, some are not. I've found many of these paid utilities are in the $80 to $100 dollar range, while CleanMyMac 2 is $39.95. MacKeeper has some similar functionality at the same price, but it is a bundle of 16 apps. As a special incentive, CleanMyMac 2 is $19.95 for new users through March 8 for a single Mac license. Other configurations are available at similar savings. The app requires OS X 10.7.5 or greater and 50 MB of free disk space. If your Mac doesn't meet those specs, the previous version of CleanMyMac will work fine. CleanMyMac 2 is an excellent and powerful utility that I have found safe and effective to use. It can be purchased and downloaded online.
How to burn a Lion boot disc
Mac OS X Lion will debut in July, and this handy set of instructions from Egg Freckles will let you create a boot disc for installation. OS X Lion will be distributed via the Mac App Store, and you can download the installer files to your hard drive. Once you have the installer files, follow these steps to create your very own boot disc: Use Finder to locate the Mac OS X Lion installer, right-click and select "Show Package Contents." Find the SharedSupport folder and look for a file named "InstallESD.dmg." This is the Lion Boot Disc image. Copy the "InstallESD.dmg" file to another folder, such as your desktop. Launch Disk Utility and click the burn button. Select the "InstallESD.dmg" copy as the image to burn, insert a DVD, and in a few minutes, you will have a brand new Lion Boot Disc. These instructions won't do much for everyone right now since OS X Lion is still in the hands of the developers. Bookmark, Evernote or Instapaper this post for future use. You'll be glad you did when Lion rolls out next month.
