How to clean and fix your Mac

The longer you use anything – with your Mac – the more widespread -scattered that it is likely to be. One solution is to upgrade to a new machine, but the more economical move is to make your work better. To help your computer feel almost new, or at least cleaner and less chaotic, we combined this guide with techniques and useful apps that helped us maintain a more civilized computer. I've been using these tips since I first published this guide in 2021, and they helped maintain my 2018 MacBook Air looking and running (almost) like before.

How to clean your MAC screen and body

While many products specially made to help you clean your computer, I found the simplest approach that works best – and this is the one Apple recommends. To get started, you need some water in a spray bottle and a clean microfiber cloth. You can use either regular or distilled water; The advantage of the latter is that it is more likely to leave the rest of your Mac, especially on the display. You can buy distilled water at a grocery store or Do it yourself with some simple cookware. Either way, it is more affordable than the dedicated cleaning solutions. If you have not yet owned any microfiber fabrics, the Amazon Selling affordable 24-pack You can get about $ 11.

Another product I found that could make work easier is a Giottos rocket blower. I can't say enough good things about this little tool. It saves you from buying expensive and watious cans of compressed air.

As for the process of cleaning your Mac, the most important tip to note is to start with a clean cloth (that's part of the reason we recommend buying them in bulk). You save yourself time and frustration in this way. Start by offering your computer and unplugging it. If you buy a rocket blower, use it now to remove any dust. If not, take a dry microfiber cloth and go to your computer. Be careful around the keys, especially if you have an older Mac with a butterfly keyboard.

Next, dampen one side of your cloth cleaning with water. Never spray any liquid directly on your computer. You will have more control this way and you will avoid getting any moisture in the internal of your Mac. I always clean the display since the last thing I wanted to do was to create more work for myself by moving dirt from some other parts of my computer on the screen.

The final step is to buff and polish your computer with a dry part of the fabric. Be gentle here because you don't want to scratch the screen or any other part of. That's it. Your Mac should look clean again.

How to fix your hard drive

One of the hardest parts of your Mac's hard drive cleaning is to know where to start. After all, most of us have apps on our computers that we don't remember to install in the first place. The good news is that Macos has a tool to help you with the exact issue.

Navigate to System settings > Generally > Storage. Here you will find a tool that separates your storage in wide categories such as “applications,” “documents,” “music,” “photos” and more. Double-click an item in the list, such as applications, to see the last time you used an app and how much space it takes. You can delete apps from the same window.

The applications section are particularly useful because you will see the last time you used a program, as well as if it was no longer supported by the operating system or if not timely thanks to a more recent release.

You don't need me to tell you to install programs you don't use, but what you don't know is that there is a better way to erase them than just drag them in the trash. A free program called AppCleaner It will help you monitor any files and folders that will be left if you only delete an application.

After removing any app you do not need, move to the documents section. The name is a bit misleading here because you will find more of the text files and Excel spreadsheets. The documents, in this case, have become a catch-all term tool for a variety of files, including those that take up a large amount of space. You can also safely delete any DMGs (disc image files with extension .dmg) where you have installed the related app. Other sections in storage space are self -explanation. The only other thing I mentioned is if you have been using an iPhone for a while, there is a good chance that you will have old iOS backups stored on your computer. You can safely remove them.

Tips and Tricks for Keeping Desktop and Finder

Let's start with the menu bar. It may not technically be part of the desktop, but a clean one can go a long way toward doing everything that is less widespread. My recommendation here is to download an app called Bartender. At first glance, this is a simple program that allows you to hide unwanted menu bar items behind a three-dot icon. However, bartender's strength is that you get many customization options. For example, you can set a trigger that automatically moves the battery status icon from hiding when your computer is not connected to a power outlet.

While we are on the subject of the menu bar, take seconds to navigate the system Settings > Generally > Login items And check out all the apps that launch when you boot your system. You can speed up your system by posting this list on programs you often use.

When it comes to the desktop itself, the best advice is less is more. Nothing will make your computer look like a messy mess than a busy desktop. Folders and stacks can help, but for most people, I suspect that part of the problem is that they use their desktop as a way to quickly and easily find files that are important to them.

If you are struggling to find a specific file or folder on your computer, try using MAC's capabilities instead. Start by opening the finder Settings menu (Command + ,) and i -click the Tags tab. You can use the defaults provided by Macos or make yourself. Ddrag the ones you think you will often use in favorite areas under the preference window. This will be done so they can be easily accessible if you want to use them. To add a tag to a file or folder, click here while holding the CTRL key and select what you want from the fall menu. You can also tag a file as it works within an app. Note that you can apply multiple tags to a single file or folder, and you can also apply them to applications.

Makers of the Macos -useful tags are that they can appear on the finder window sidebar, and are easily found directly in the finder or using Siri. As long as you have a system for organizing your files, even if it's a simple, it's easier to monitor them. As an example, I would like to apply an Engadget tag to any files related to my work. I will add a “important” tag if it is something critical and I want to find fast.

A tool that will help the supercharge of your finder experience is Alfred. This is effectively a stronger version of Apple's spotlight feature. Among other things, you can use Alfred to find and launch apps quickly. There is a small learning curve, but once you get a hang of it, Alfred will change how you will use your Mac for the better.

How to fix your windows and tabs

If you have used both Macos and Windows 10, you will know that Apple's operating system is not with the best window management tools. You can click and hold the green full-screen button to tile a window on either the left or right side of your screen, but that's about it and the feature is always felt less accurate than its Windows opposite.

My suggestion is to download an app that resembles the Windows 10 feature feature. You have many competing options that are more or less offering the same operation. My go-to is a $ 5 program called Magnet. If you want a free alternative, see Rectanggulo. Another option is BettersnapToolThat offers more functioning than the magnet but no clean of an interface. All three apps give you more ways to configure your windows than what you get in the built-in tool in MacOS. They also come with shortcut support, which means you can quickly set up your windows and get to work.

This article originally appeared at the Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/how-to-clean-your-mac-cbook-cleaning-supplies-wigital-runization-153007592.html?src=rss