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Weekly Utilities Update: CleanMyMac, Cocktail, SwitchResX, more...

Our Weekly Utilities Update report is a list of all the updates for many Mac utilities that have been released in the past week.

Topher Kessler MacFixIt Editor
Topher, an avid Mac user for the past 15 years, has been a contributing author to MacFixIt since the spring of 2008. One of his passions is troubleshooting Mac problems and making the best use of Macs and Apple hardware at home and in the workplace.
Topher Kessler
2 min read

Our Weekly Utilities Update report is a list of all the updates for many Mac utilities that have been released in the past week. While utilities can be any tool that helps you perform a routine task (including image manipulation and synchronization), our focus in this column is to bring you those tools that help in troubleshooting Mac hardware and software problems. This week there were updates mainly for cleaning and file management utilities.

Cleaning and maintenance

This week, the main cleaning applications have been CleanMyMac, which primarily adds a new "System Junk" feature to find even more temporary and unused files for removal. Likewise, an update to Cocktail adds more temporary file removal with support for Adobe Flash cookies and caches. A more recent utility called HDCleanup has also been updated, which now will list contents of ZIP files and provides more search and QuickLook options for files.

File utilities

The simple, but powerful, Grand Perspective app has been updated to add drag-and-drop support for folders. For those who would enjoy an alternative to Spotlight for searching, FoxTrot Personal Search is an option that has been updated for 64-bit support and provides better system integration with menu and AppleScript support.

Other

Other utilities that have been updated include Mac Restart X, which provides an option to remotely shut down the computer via the Web. While there are other options that can do the same function, this is another that could be useful in the event the computer will not accept keyboard input. Lastly, for people who need custom control of their monitor outputs, the utility SwitchResX has been updated to fix numerous bugs and problems with Spaces, Mirroring, and conflicts with multiple versions running.

The current weekly updates can be found below:

  1. Mac Restart X 1.5 - ($20) Restarts your Mac at a specified schedule or time or via web.
  2. A Better Finder Rename 8.54 - ($19.95) File, photo, and MP3 batch renamer with advanced features.
  3. CleanMyMac 1.8.1 - ($14.95) Clean up your Mac and free up hard drive space with a few clicks.
  4. HDCleanUp 1.7 - ($10) Clean up the clutter on your hard disk.
  5. Cocktail 4.6.1 - ($14.95) (Leopard Edition) general purpose system modify/repair utility.
  6. Caffeine 1.1.1 - (Free!) Menu bar item to temporarily disable sleep & screen savers.
  7. FoxTrot Personal Search 2.6b1 - ($29) Advanced find-by-content for your personal data.
  8. GrandPerspective 1.3.1 - (Free!) Graphically displays disk usage.
  9. SwitchResX 4.1.2 - ($14) Custom resolutions, desktop icon position saving & more.
  10. PacketStream 3.1 - ($24.95) Network monitoring tool.


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