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AaronLUFC

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 15, 2014
24
0
United Kingdom
Hi, I'll be getting a Macbook Pro Tuesday.

I've read it's best not to have an Anti-Virus software installed. Is this the case for other programs I use for general maintenance?

I currently have things like Auslogics Defragger, CCleaner, Malwarebytes, Spybot Search & Destroy installed on my Windows PC.

Thanks.
 

TEG

macrumors 604
Jan 21, 2002
6,621
170
Langley, Washington
Anti-Virus Software isn't required, but can be useful. I recommend ClamXAV as an Anti-Virus. There is also a copy of Malwarebytes for Mac, but I have not tried it.

TEG
 

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
55,378
53,238
Behind the Lens, UK
Hi, I'll be getting a Macbook Pro Tuesday.

I've read it's best not to have an Anti-Virus software installed. Is this the case for other programs I use for general maintenance?

I currently have things like Auslogics Defragger, CCleaner, Malwarebytes, Spybot Search & Destroy installed on my Windows PC.

Thanks.

Personally I wouldn't bother with any of these. I've been running my Mac with none of the above with no issues. OSX is better at taking care of itself than windows.
 

firedept

macrumors 603
Jul 8, 2011
6,278
1,130
Somewhere!
I have been using Macs for many years and have never installed any such software. Have never had an issue either. Mind you, I am a lot more diligent about the sites I visit and the emails I accept. Macs tend to be less prone to the problems that can attack a PC. That's not to say the a Mac is invincible either.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Most only remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.
These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. In fact, deleting some caches can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.
Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance. OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention. Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 12 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below). 3rd party antivirus apps are not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as a user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.
Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.
 
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