14 DAY TRIAL // Gone are the times when you needed to perform cleaning tasks on a regular basis. Nowadays, the hardware is very powerful, and the OS is considerably better optimized.
To be fair, OS X has always been a clean system compared to Windows. There was almost no need for HDD defragmentation under OS X. Now, with the SSD becoming standard, you probably know that you should not worry about defragmenting an SSD drive (in fact, it should be avoided at all costs since it can affect drive lifetime if you overdo it).
But let's take one thing at a time. In order to tweak and clean an OS X installation, you require some tools, and the good news is that the best are free.
Onyx
Onyx is the oldest tweaking utility for Mac, and it has always been free. There's a different version for each OS X, from Jaguar (10.2) to El Capitan (10.11), with a version for Sierra (10.12) being in the works as well.
The interface is not very user-friendly by today's standards, but it's not very complicated either. The main tasks are broken down into tabs: Maintenance, Cleaning, Utilities, Parameters, and so on. There are a lot of goodies if you take the time to check them out.
It's recommended that, from time to time, you run Maintenance options, such as Structure of the Disk, Disk Permissions, and Scripts.
In the Cleaning options, you should delete all the logs on a monthly basis. As for the other options (app, fonts cache, etc.), I usually clean them every few months.
The Parameters tab is where a lot of the system options are found. You can customize hidden OS options such as JPG format for screen capture (PNG is default), disable default DMG verification, and improve support for disk images (ISO, DMG, BIN).
When you use this program, I urge you to take a look at the help file in order to get a grasp of the harder-to-understand functions.
CCleaner
CCleaner has become a classic on Windows, and now it has a Mac version as well. It's really easy to use, providing you with only two logical options: Analyze and Run Cleaner.
By default, it will analyze or clean the browser cache/history, but you can also include some of the installed apps.
In the Tools section, you can uninstall any apps (with garbage clean), or you can inspect what is automatically loaded on system startup. Disable what you don't need to be loaded automatically.
You can also check the disk integrity or securely erase free space.
CleanMyDrive
CleanMyDrive is a small app that is very useful for deleting the OS X-specific hidden files from external USB devices like memory sticks or portable HDDs, which will be used on Windows systems. It will clean the junk when you eject the USB device.
TRIM function for SSD
If you have a non-Apple SSD installed, you need to enable the Trim Function. If your system is 10.10.4 or newer, see these instructions. If your installation is older, try the Trim Enabler App.
Spotlight indexing
Disable some of the Spotlight indexing options by going to System Preferences - Spotlight. Activate the index search only for the files that you really need.
In the Privacy Tab, add the folders or disks that you do not want to be indexed. I advise you to add here any FAT32, ExFAT or NTFS drives.
