Weekly troubleshooting utilities update
Our utilities update report is a list of updates for Mac troubleshooting utilities that have been released in the past week, including maintenance utilities, display management tools, and file renaming utilities.
Our utilities update report is a list of updates for Mac utilities that have been released in the past week. Though a utility 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 are updates for maintenance utilities, display management tools, and file renaming utilities.
Maintenance
The first maintenance utility update this week is for MacCleanse, which is a popular utility aimed at removing unused files, caches, duplicates, and temporary files that all might be taking up disk space. MacCleanse offers a number of ways to scan for and remove these files. The program has been updated to fix bugs with some UI elements and a problem with location removal. It also adds new features for more stringent authentication and folder protection options. The program is $19.95 after the 15-day trial.
Another popular maintenance tool is Snow Leopard Cache Cleaner, which can be used to specifically remove caches and other temporary files on Snow Leopard machines. In addition, the program offers OS customization options, optimization for tasks such as Web browsing, antivirus with ClamAV, and the ability to create emergency boot disks for OS X. The program is $9.99 for a license.
Hardware
In hardware utilities, Display Maestro has been updated with an under-the-hood set of optimizations, which fix numerous small bugs with the program. The utility is a useful tool for customizing the output for external displays and monitor setups that need special refresh rates, scan rates, and color and resolution settings. The program is $4.95 for a license.
File system
The last utility this week is a file renaming tool called "A Better Finder Rename." File renaming utilities can be useful for managing large numbers of files, which can happen if you are performing data recovery routines. There are many renamers out there, but "A Better Finder Rename" is one of the more popular and developed ones. The utility has been updated with a minor fix for compatibility with the upcoming Mac App store.
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