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GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Please do I really need MacKeeper. I have noticed my MacBook Pro hanging since installing it?
No, you don't need it. 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. Some 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. Some of these apps delete caches, which 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.

Mac 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.

I have noticed my MacBook Pro hanging since installing it?
I strongly recommend you uninstall it. The most effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:

If you're having performance problems, this may help:

 

kettlecorn

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2011
284
0
Yeah I didn't see any benefit when I tried it out years ago.
But the app TrashMe is pretty cool in getting rid of programs and programfiles.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Yeah I didn't see any benefit when I tried it out years ago.
But the app TrashMe is pretty cool in getting rid of programs and programfiles.
In most cases, app removal software such as TrashMe doesn't do a thorough job of finding and removing files/folders related to deleted apps. For more information, read this and this. If you just want to delete the app, drag the .app file to the trash. No other software needed. If you want to completely remove all associated files/folders, no removal apps will do the job.
 

kettlecorn

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2011
284
0
In most cases, app removal software such as TrashMe doesn't do a thorough job of finding and removing files/folders related to deleted apps. For more information, read this and this. If you just want to delete the app, drag the .app file to the trash. No other software needed. If you want to completely remove all associated files/folders, no removal apps will do the job.

Interesting. I haven't tried Appkeeper or the others but TrashMe has been working fine for me without any problems. I wasn't expecting it to give me complete 100% removal but it does do a good job at finding most things at a click of a button. 99% of the time it does remove 90%+ of the stuff I need done and all you need to do is click the app and "related files" and do a check through to see which ones you want to keep or remove. Works better than just dragging the app to the trash because sometimes I DO want to remove plist and preferences for a clean reinstall.

I'm sure you can go thru and manually remove every related file but that tedious and time consuming.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Interesting. I haven't tried Appkeeper or the others but TrashMe has been working fine for me without any problems. I wasn't expecting it to give me complete 100% removal but it does do a good job at finding most things at a click of a button. 99% of the time it does remove 90%+ of the stuff I need done and all you need to do is click the app and "related files" and do a check through to see which ones you want to keep or remove. Works better than just dragging the app to the trash because sometimes I DO want to remove plist and preferences for a clean reinstall.

I'm sure you can go thru and manually remove every related file but that tedious and time consuming.
The manual method usually takes less than 30 seconds. Also, plist files take up very little space and don't cause any harm if not deleted, while many of the files left behind by such apps can be much larger or can leave items on the Menu Bar or processes to keep running. Every app that I tested, including TrashMe, left quite a lot behind. Of course, if you prefer using it anyway, that's certainly your choice.
 
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