Welcome fellow readers to another edition of El Toro’s Tech Blog.
When last we met, we were talking about the wonders of maintenance on your Windows computer. Today we will cover Performing Simple Maintenance on your Apple Computer.
Let’s get started.
Apple is really big on promoting their products as “they work out of the box, so you don’t have to”. And while it is very true, you can still do a little maintenance to ensure you have everything up-to-date, run automated backups, and a few other things.
Apple Updates – without knowing what version you have for Mac OSX, the process to update it is still the same. Just go to the Apple menu and click on it, then select Software Update. It will check your system and let you know what’s available to update. Just like Windows, you can also have it automatically check for updates regularly. If you have anything version Lion or above, the App Store, located on the dock will flash you a number telling you there is an update and you can update everything from there. (just do not install Maverick OSX. That will be an entry for another day)
Anti-Virus – The beauty about Mac products when using the Mac OSX operating system, it is harder to get a virus or any type of malware to affect your computer. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t accidently transfer a file to your Windows friend and have them catch the virus. So my rule of thumb, get antivirus for any computer you have (apple or not). My recommended choice of software (free as well) is Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac. It actually does more than what aVast! and much more user friendly. Set it to always check for updates and let it run a scan once every 2 weeks.
Back Up your Computer - Just like Windows, the Mac has its own built-in Backup program called Time Machine. I will say this first though, to get the most out of backing up a Mac, follow the same rule as in Windows; get an external hard drive that has double the space of what your hard drive on the computer is (if computer is 500 GB of hard drive, get an external 1 TB hard drive). Setting up Time Machine is as easy as connecting the external drive to your Mac. Since this is the first time you would set up a device with Time Machine, all you need to do is connect the external drive, Launch Time Machine (located in the Applications Folder or by searching for it using the Spotlight) and you will see a screen similar to this one
Just say “Use as Backup Disk” and you are all set. Simple!
Clean Temporary Files – In Windows, we talked about CCleaner. This is also available for Mac and it works just as great. Install it, run it, and let it do its thing. It’s that simple. It will clean the temp files up in no time and if you want advanced features, you can purchase that version as well. Worth every penny.
Uninstall Unneeded Apps – For those who may or may not know, uninstalling an app is a little bit different on a Mac. You would go into your applications folder, click and drag the app to the trash. However, what you don’t know is Apple still doesn’t have a proper uninstaller program that removes the app properly. Honestly, if you want something that works great, you need to pay the price but I suggest Hazel. This works behind the scenes without as much as intervention from you (unless you want it to). It has been known to be your “personal housekeeper” for the Mac. This is probably the safest way to remove apps correctly. I recommend it.
Additional Maintenance – Mac has some cool apps built in to do most of this but you need to run them yourself. I like my stuff automated and running on a schedule so I suggest downloading OnyX (just make sure you download the one that corresponds to the OSX you are running). The software is free and you can use the Maintenance and Cleaning tabs to have it run daily, weekly and/or monthly tasks. It’s pretty sweet!
If you automate most of this stuff, there should be less intervention from you (just remember to keep the system turned on the day you set to run the tasks). Depending on your use, either once every 2 weeks or once a month should be more than enough.
That’s it for today. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share this with your friends. Until next time, Be Safe! =)
No comments:
Post a Comment