22 essential Mac utilities
Right out of the box, your Mac can do a lot of things. With these utilities, you can make it do nearly everything.
August 29, 2007 (Computerworld)
When you buy a new Macintosh, it comes pretty well equipped. It's got an assortment of software already installed, including a top-notch browser (Safari), a fine instant-messaging program (iChat) and an industry-standard media player (QuickTime). Many system maintenance tasks are handled by Mac OS X's own built-in, Unix-based routines that clean up old files, monitor the health of your hard disk and more. On top of that, Apple's included Disk Utility can diagnose and fix the most common threats to the smooth operation of your hard drive.
Which isn't to say there's no room for improvement. The addition of a few select utilities can fill in some of the missing pieces in your Mac tool kit or extend the capabilities of the built-in tools. I'm not referring to the full-fledged applications almost everyone needs, such as a word processor or spreadsheet program, but rather the kind of inexpensive program that makes using your Mac easier, safer or more fun.
Here's my list of the 22 must-have apps for the Mac in 11 different categories, plus a few bonus apps worth the download. These are tools that should be installed on every Mac -- and Apple didn't include them, so here's where to get them yourself.
Disk repair
At one point or another, your hard drive is going to get corrupted. When it does, and if Apple's Disk Utility can't fix it, DiskWarrior is your go-to app. DiskWarrior recreates your disk directories, eliminating errors in the process, and populates them with the data recovered from the original directories. At $99.95, DiskWarrior is the most expensive item in this list, but what price peace of mind?
In fact, DiskWarrior is worth getting well before your hard drive actually fails, because it can alert you to possible drive malfunction and fix fallacious code -- or at least give you time to back up -- before things get worse. It also comes on a bootable CD, so you can try to repair a damaged disk as soon as it happens.
 DiskWarrior can keep tabs on your disk to warn you of potential problems. (Click image to see larger view.) |
Micromat's TechTool Pro isn't quite as good as DiskWarrior at repairing corrupt disks, but if you like the idea of having just one application that handles both disk repair and system optimization, I recommend it. While the majority of TechTool Pro's features are system maintenance oriented, I like this $98 app mostly for its disk utilities. I particularly like the eDrive feature, which allows you to create a partition containing the app itself and a small copy of your system that you can boot from if things go bad.
 OnyX's Automation tab lets you perform several maintenance routines at once. (Click image to see larger view.) |
The free OnyX from Titanium is a multifunction system utility that offers a host of essential system maintenance tools, including the ability to verify and repair system permissions; run a complete system optimization script to increase your Mac's overall speed; clear your cache, browser history, cookies, recent searches, CrashReporter logs, log files and so on; and view your Mac's hardware info.
The Automation feature will do all of the above in a single click. OnyX also provides access to hidden or obscure Mac OS X options. For instance, you can choose from a long list of Unix commands, from a2p to ypserv, and display the relevant manual ("man") pages.
Maintain's Cocktail is very similar to OnyX in most respects, though it can do a handful of things that OnyX can't, such as optimizing network settings for the type of connection you have. (Similarly, OnyX does a few things Cocktail doesn't.) Your $15 (shareware) also gets you a slightly more elegant interface. Since Cocktail offers a fully functional demo, download both and see which you like best.
Bootable backups
Most backup software, such as Apple's own Backup app, can't create a fully bootable backup disk. One solution is SuperDuper from Shirt Pocket. The $28 app makes creating a fully bootable backup as easy as can be, and with its Smart Update feature, you can update an existing clone without having to a create a new backup entirely. (Full clones are all SuperDuper can do, however. You'll still need something like Backup for partial backups, of just your photos or music, for instance.)
 SuperDuper makes creating a bootable backup as easy as possible. (Click image to see larger view.) |
Businesses or workgroups might prefer Mike Bombich's free Carbon Copy Cloner, because it can perform backups over a network. It also allows you to select exactly what gets copied from each person's computer and set up a schedule for automated backups. The fact that CCC tells you exactly what files are being copied as the cloning operation is proceeding is another plus.
Customization
Koingo Software's MacPilot ($20, shareware) offers hundreds of different options for customizing the operation and appearance of your Mac, from changing the picture shown in the login window to disabling Dashboard. My favorite is the ability to relaunch with all the windows open that were open on last logout; I also like the way it lets you automatically mount disks from the login window. Force-deleting files and adding a Quit menu item to the Finder are options I've occasionally found useful.
 MacPilot gives you a world of customization options for your Mac. (Click image to see larger view.) |
If you just want to make your Mac feel more warm and fuzzy, the free TinkerTool from Marcel Bresink Software-Systeme -- think of it as MacPilot's little brother -- is a splendid utility that allows you to customize different settings on your Mac to give it a more personal feel. You can change anything from the font size your Mac uses to display filenames to the placement of scroll arrows. A few of my favorite tweaks using transparent icons in the dock for hidden applications, disabling native support for PDF documents in Safari and disabling crash reports when an application crashes.
File decompression
There's not much to say about the free StuffIt Expander from Smith Micro Software, other than the fact that it's probably one of the most essential apps for your Mac aside from what already comes preinstalled. The currency of the Web is compressed files, and SE can handle almost all of them: .zip, .sit, .sitx, .rar, .exe and about a dozen others. Bottom line: If you want to download over the Internet, you need StuffIt Expander.
 Adium offers many more options for customizing its behavior than iChat does. (Click image to see larger view.) |
Unlike iChat, which comes with your Mac but only works easily with AIM and .Mac services, Adium (free, donations welcome) lets you connect to almost a dozen different instant messaging services, including Google Talk, Jabber, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Gadu-Gadu, LiveJournal, QQ and more, in addition to the two supported by iChat. Adium also offers impressive flexibility when it comes to customizing the contacts and chat windows. Even better, the app records a transcript of every one of your conversations, viewable through the Chat Transcripts Viewer, and organized by date, time and buddy.
Communications extenders
The following three add functionality to each of Apple's Internet programs.
"Spotlight for the Web" accurately describes Inquisitor, a free Safari add-on by David Watanabe. As you type something into Safari's tool bar search field, Inquisitor returns likely matches in a dropdown pane -- like Spotlight's results pane -- that lets you pick the right term quickly.
Have you ever wanted to tag an e-mail with a note because the sender asked that you follow-up in a couple of weeks? Or maybe assign a keyword to an e-mail so it'd be easier to find later? InDev Software's MailTags ($30, shareware) lets you do exactly that. It's a fantastic little app that lets you tag e-mail messages with a note or keyword, assign them to a project, turn them into iCal To Do items, and then search and sort using any of those methods.
 MailTags gives you more option for handling incoming e-mails. (Click image to see larger view.) |
When it comes to iChat, many of us want more. That's where Chax from Kent Sutherland comes in. This free add-on incorporates tabbed chat windows and Growl messages (pop-up notifications), among a collection of other minor modifications and additions. Until Leopard comes along later this year -- which will incorporate some but not all of Chax's features into iChat -- Chax is a must-have.
Video plug-ins
Adding support on your Mac for almost every video format is as easy as installing Perian (free, open source) from the Perian Project, a sort of universal translator for QuickTime. Perian allows you to play virtually any kind of video file from DivX to FSV1 and is 100% free.
One kind of file Perian doesn't support, though, is WMV. Last year, Microsoft abandoned its Windows Media Player for Mac and turned support for the format on the Mac over to a company named Telestream. Telestream maintains several versions as plug-ins for QuickTime, ranging from a free player to packages that handle editing and conversion. ($29 to $179). At least the Flip4Mac player is essential for anyone who wants to watch WMV movies.
 LaunchBar lets you navigate your hard disk just by typing abbreviations for what you want. (Click image to see larger view.) |
Objective Development's LaunchBar ($20, shareware) is "just" a search bar, but you'll be amazed at how much lies behind that simple description. LaunchBar appears just below the menu bar when you need it and lets you enter short abbreviations of a file's name -- such as "IT" for iTunes -- to get instant access. You can also chain abbreviations to narrow your search and perform actions on the specified file. Placing regularly frequented files in the LaunchBar itself allows for even faster access.
Two other handy convenience apps are Many Tricks' Butler (free, donations appreciated) and Blacktree's Quicksilver (also free). When properly configured, Butler offers a shortcut to anything from your Internet bookmarks to your collection of applications to a specific iTunes playlist. And as with LaunchBar, Quicksilver lets you find and act on files just by typing.
I prefer Butler to Quicksilver because as good as Quicksilver is, Butler can do everything Quicksilver can, just ever so slightly more intuitively. And I like LaunchBar better than Butler because it dispenses with some of Butler's features I consider nonessential, such as its control of iTunes, which offers little more than iTunes' Dock item does. But your mileage may vary, and there's nothing stopping you from trying all three.
Privacy
It might be a little unnerving to know how much information about itself -- and maybe even about you -- your Mac sends to other computers on a regular basis. When you start an application and a prompt pops up telling you that a new version is available. That means your Mac checked in with the developer's server. (That's also how they know how many copies you have running.)
Little Snitch ($25) from Objective Development notifies you whenever your computer is trying to send information to another (and will let you stop it if you desire).
 Little Snitch lets you know who your Mac is getting involved with (and lets you stop it). (Click image to see larger view.) |
Application uninstall
Great as these utilities are, it's always possible that you'll change your mind after installing one and decide you want to get rid of it, or one your other applications. You can just drag the application file to the Trash, but to make sure you delete all associated files, you need a uninstall utility.
With its Apple-like simplicity, extra space-generating features, and $10 (shareware) price tag, Synium Software's CleanApp is the ultimate uninstaller. Not only will it do the basic stuff such as finding all the files associated with a program -- Library and Preferences files, for instance -- so you can make sure you delete everything, but it will also compile a list of your most unused and massive space-consuming items. What's more, just in case you don't speak 20 different languages, CleanApp can remove the language packages you don't need and free up close to 1GB.
 CleanApp finds the files associated with a program so you can do a complete uninstall. (Click image to see larger view.) |
Another good uninstaller, Matterform Media's Yank, searches in real time and removes all traces of an app or file; it sounds exactly like what should come preinstalled on all Macs. Its most unique feature, however, is that after Yank is installed it will monitor every new software installation you make. When you want to uninstall a program, Yank knows exactly where any hidden files may be and uninstalls them. Its $20 (shareware) price makes it kind of expensive for the purpose, though.
More affordable and even easier to use, AppZapper by Austin Sarner and Brian Ball (shareware, $13) is a solid choice when it comes to an uninstaller for the Mac. Simply drag what you want to delete into its gray-shaded box and AppZapper will locate all files associated with the app or folder. From there, click Zap and it's gone, with a sound effect appropriate to its raygun icon.
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Four more quick ones Utility Lock (free) from Andrew James. Locks your screen with a passcode faster than you can put it to sleep. Monolingual (free, open source, donations accepted) by J. Schrier and I. Stein. Remove all foreign languages from your Mac and save almost 1GB in space. Apimac's Mac Notepad ($20). A single place to store, label, search for and generally keep track of multiple bits of text -- like a real note pad, but better. MacBreakZ from Publicspace.net ($30). Most of us probably sit in our desk chairs staring at a computer screen for longer than we'd like to admit -- I know I do. Set MacBreakZ to prompt you every 15, 45 or 60 minutes to take a break, and it'll even give you an exercise to do to stretch your muscles and revitalize your senses. I'll warn you, it can get a bit irritating if you're in the middle of working on something, but that's probably when you most need it.
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An earlier version of this story didn't distinguish between the free Flip4Mac player and the versions you have to pay for. The earlier version also stated that iChat could only connect to .Mac or AIM accounts; in fact, it can connect to others, albeit with some effort.
Logan Kugler has written for MacLife and Business 2.0, among many other national magazines.