Maintenance - How often

[knew2mack]

Hey everyone-

How often is it recommended to clear caches, logs and cookies? I don't really even know what they are or what they do, but I haven't done any disk permissions or disk utilities ever and I'm noticing that my machine is starting to run a little different. Can doing these things help to speed it up and run more efficiently?

Can you explain, in layman's term, (hold my hand, step by step descriptions please) what caches, logs & cookies are?? And Disk permissions? I find that I don't know enough about computers to understand many of the technical things I read......feeling very frustrated and honestly, dumb!!!

I took a screenshot, I just downloaded Main Menu, which was recommended in a book abt Mac Maintenance and Backups.

Thanks

 

[miles01110]

Unless you are having a problem it's not necessary to do any system maintenance. Briefly,

caches - data stored on the local machine for quick access.
cookies- small text files sent to your machine by a website for local storage containing information about the website (shopping cart items, for example)
logs- documentation of system events.

 

[knew2mack]

thank you for this but on the cache, cookies, and batches, isn't it preferable to clear/clean them at SOME point? It is my understanding that every site I visit, leaves little bits of info on our computers. Isn't clearing caches and cookies just taking these bits, which do take up space (??) off our machine and allow it to run better???

 

[GGJstudios]

thank you for this but on the cache, cookies, and batches, isn't it preferable to clear/clean them at SOME point? It is my understanding that every site I visit, leaves little bits of info on our computers. Isn't clearing caches and cookies just taking these bits, which do take up space (??) off our machine and allow it to run better???

Clearing your cookies and cache allows refreshed information to be downloaded. It doesn't have to do with freeing space, as usually such items don't consume much space to begin with. Besides, data stored on your hard drive has no effect on system performance, unless you're almost out of disk space. In the same way, applications you have installed have no effect on performance, unless they're running.

There's nothing you need to do maintenance-wise, to keep your Mac running efficiently. Mac OS X takes care of itself.