Spring is here and like your home, your computer could probably do with a solid spring clean. Many users ignore some important and some not so important obligations throughout the year. I do not expect others to live as I do, so the information in this article does not contain ideas for cleaning your bathroom or kitchen floor without breaking a sweat. However, it does contain ways of cleaning your Mac that will improve your computer’s overall performance.
Don’t rush for your wallet yet
One might think that it’s getting close to the time for a new computer, but before you sell your netbook online, try the following recommendations to determine if a little ‘digital elbow grease’ was all the computer actually needs:
The first suggestion is to remove old iChat logs. iChat retains logs of past chats. Open iChat > click Preferences>next click on Messages> Then click Save Chat Transcripts To> finally choose folder. The default location is in a folder called iChats in your Documents folder, though owners can change this and redirect future files. Doing this saves a log file each time iChat is used. This is very helpful at work, especially for those who frequently need a reminder of details from certain conversations.
Suspecting that most users will not bother with backing up their data regularly, some software designers include options to automate the backups to be executed at the same time every week. The program will prompt the owner to select a folder in which to place the chats. Two favourites are The Omni Group’s OmniFocus and BBEdit by Bare Bones Software. BBEdit automatically stores backups in a folder bearing its name in the My Documents folder. OmniFocus leaves the location up to the owner. Since you’re elbow-deep, now is an ideal moment to check in yourusefolder/music/iTunes folder libraries that were saved when you installed an update. There might be a ‘libraries’ folder from a previous backup that contains your iTunes libraries previously saved. This duplicate can be removed.
A few years ago, while listening to music in the car, the same song from my iTunes folder played three times in a row. I didn’t think much of it on the first repeat; the second, however, caused me to figure out what was happening. Once I was able to examine the iTunes folder and library, I was surprised to find multiple copies of many titles. The iTunes built-in feature is included to help owners find duplicates. Remove the duplicates is a good idea. To execute this command, choose File>Display Duplicates. The program now presents all tracks with identical name, artist and album. Be sure to review these carefully. Once removed, space will be reclaimed on the primary computer and all devices that connect to it in order to share data.
Troy Stokes was a middle school music teacher, but after a few years he started to consider other means of employment. Deciding he would return to university to study early music, he sold his netbook for cash online and used that money towards a new MacBook Pro. He is now singing in Rotterdam, Netherlands and has never looked back.
