MacCleanse

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For a complete product description, download links, and feature outline, visit the product page. This page is for product support only.

Contents 1 Video Tutorials 2 Introduction 3 Words of Caution 4 Which logs and caches are safe to delete? 5 Will I lose my bookmarks or instant messaging contacts? 6 Beefing Up Your Privacy 7 Creating a Favourite Set 8 Using AppleScript to Cleanse 9 Purge Locations 10 Running MacCleanse on Shutdown 11 Feature Requests 12 Known Issues

Video Tutorials

Skip reading the documentation and head right over to the Video Tutorials area if preferred.

Introduction

MacCleanse is a quick and efficient solution to purge histories, caches, logs, and more. Maintain your privacy and free up hard drive space! The main window of MacCleanse has numerous general categories listed on the left side of the window under the "Quick Cleanup Config" header. Visit each of these categories to view items by program name or sub-category. Highlight items for more information, and then place a checkmark in the list to include them for erasure.

When all of the desired items have been checked, optionally commit the entire selection to memory by using the "Favourite Sets" feature, then head over to the "Scan & Delete" area. For the first few times running MacCleanse, always perform a "Scan" first. In a few moments, a list of files and actions will be presented. Carefully review this list to ensure no files you wish to keep will be removed. If some appear, adjust your settings, and perform another scan. When ready, press the "Delete All" button and the results will all be purged from the system! Once you are confident MacCleanse is configured to your specifications, the "Scan & Delete All" combo-button will perform both actions in one sweep and can be shown in the Preferences window. Additionally, you can also schedule MacCleanse to be run automatically every day under the "Schedule" area.

All options in MacCleanse's Quick Cleanup area are perfectly safe to run on any system configuration; no personal data will be lost even by checking every single item in the list. The items MacCleanse deletes are primarily system logs, caches, and recent histories - not personal documents like movies, music, software, and so on.

Words of Caution

MacCleanse is a powerful tool and incorrect use of features in the "Advanced Clean" area can result in unexpected loss of data. Not due to a programming fault by any means, but due to a logic error, lack of attention, or misunderstanding on the user's part.

For example, a feature like the "Unused Files" cleaner scans your computer for files that were created, modified, or opened more than X number of days ago. If for some reason, this interval is set to something very low like "1 day" chances are it will return most of the files on your computer.

Before ANY files are EVER deleted in the "Advanced Clean" area, you will always be presented with a list of files to confirm the operation. Please always review this list and ensure you have correctly configured the feature, and optionally uncheck the files you do not wish to modify or delete.

Worst case scenario, if you have misconfigured an option in "Advanced Clean", scanned, and asked MacCleanse to delete everything without reviewing the results list, your files may still be recoverable if the secure deletion option was not enabled in the Preferences window. Programs like "Data Rescue" from ProSoft Engineering aid in the recovery of deleted files.

Which logs and caches are safe to delete?

Logs and caches generally speaking are generated the by the operating system and will automatically be regenerated on the fly as needed and are of little to no use to the user. They can all be erased safely.

Will I lose my bookmarks or instant messaging contacts?

MacCleanse does not have a feature to erase Bookmarks in your web browser or contacts on your instant messenger list. Checking every option under either of these categories will never result in losing these items.

Beefing Up Your Privacy

Deleting files normally on a computer is done incredibly quickly - even if you are removing hundreds of GigaBytes. This is due to the fact that the files are not actually erased from the physical hard disk. The digital "link" to where the file is physically stored on the disk is forgotten and the icon disappears when browsing files on your computer. In time, new files will overwrite this location on the hard disk. This leaves deleted files to potentially be recovered by data rescue programs if they have not already been overwritten.

To ensure files are not just deleted, but actually wiped off the disk, enable the "Secure Deletion" option in the Preferences window. This will delete the digital link to the file on the disk and then overwrite it once with random data ensuring it cannot be recovered with commercially available software. However, enabling this feature will substantially increase the time it takes to erase files.

Data on hard drives is stored magnetically and despite wiping data once, there may be a very faint magnetic presence of the old data left on the disk. Some advanced recovery businesses have tools which can read this trace residue and recover fragments of data or sometimes even entire files. The United States Department of Defense overwrites all of their hard disks seven times prior to disposal to maximize the inability for recovery. You can also enable this feature in MacCleanse in the Preferences window at the expense of dramatically increasing erasure times - minutes, hours, or even days!

Creating a Favourite Set

MacCleanse remembers which items were previously checked each time the application is launched; however, sometimes it is desirable to have various cleanse presets. For instance, perhaps it may be necessary to create a preset that only purges web browser history, or another that only cleanses Instant Messenger chat logs.

Create a Favourite Set

1. Setup the main list and check/uncheck all the items desired under the "Quick Cleanup Config" area.
2. Go into the "Favourite Sets" area.
3. Press the "Create a New Set" button.
4. Specify the name for the preset and click "Create"

Checking and unchecking after the preset has been created will not affect the values saved in the preset. Reselecting the preset from the menu will revert the changes made.

Modifying a Favourite Set

1. Go into the "Favourite Sets" area.
2. Select an existing Favourite.
3. Click "Load Selected Set"
4. Reconfigure the options in the "Quick Cleanup Config" area
5. Go back into the "Favourite Sets" area.
6. Delete the selected preset.
7. Press the "Create a New Set" button, enter the same name, and click Create.

Using AppleScript to Cleanse

MacCleanse can be automated using AppleScript. Simply run the following script to have MacCleanse launch and cleanse. In the Preferences window of MacCleanse, it is possible to specify an action like shutting down the computer, or quitting the program, upon successful cleanse.

tell application "MacCleanse"
BeginCleanse
end tell

Purge Locations

Purge Locations, located on the sidebar of the main window, allows the creation of a list of files and/or folders to be erased with every cleanse operation. These items can also be erased using administrator privileges if desired by turning on the "As Admin" checkbox (not available in the 'App Store' version).

The "Erase Folder" checkbox will erase not only the contents of a purge location, but also the containing folder itself.

Easily enable or disable purge locations for later use by toggling the checkboxes in the "On" column.

Running MacCleanse on Shutdown

MacCleanse cannot automatically be run on shutdown; however, Digital Sentry (another one of our products) can perform a web browser history purge on shutdown.

1. Download and install Digital Sentry
2. In the Monitors window, create a new Monitor.
3. Set the event to monitor being "Digital Sentry is about to close"
4. Set the action to "Clean internet history"
5. Configure the action by checking all items you wish to erase.
6. Finalize the monitor creation.
7. Ensure Digital Sentry is set to automatically launch on login. This can be done in the Preferences window.

Feature Requests

1. Safe files/folders
2. Delete all files that require admin perms immediately when performing a cleanse, then do the rest.
3. Delete LocalStorage on Lion
4. Delete Lion resume data
5. Allow folder exclusions in the Archives, Unused Files, and Duplicate Finder features.
6. Do not clear-out unchecked items from the results lists when cleansing
7. More easily use QuickLook to analyze Duplicate Files.
8. Show file path in results lists
9. Thunderbird Mail cleaning.
10. Additional support coverage of the AOL Browser.
11. Clear FrontRow movie lists.
12. Flush DNS Cache.
13. Ability to clear iMovie Cache.
14. Ability to clear QuickTime "URL Menu".
15. Ability to cleanse drives connected to the Mac.
16. L/R arrow keystrokes for close/open collapsible triangle.
17. Reset Font Cache
18. Adobe CSX, updates creates a folder in Applications called .AdobePatchFiles
19. MacCleanse-MacPilot connectivity button.
20. Never display cleanse log if all logging prefs are off.
21. Remove Keychain Passwords.
22. Allow the program to run silently in the background.
23. Mail - Cleanse option for list of previous recipients.
24. New cleanse item: Unison list of visited newsgroups. /username/library/application support/unison
25. Google Toolbar cleanse option (particularly for Firefox).
26. New cleanse item: Safari metadata > history. User Account>Library>Caches>Metadata>Safari>History
27. Delete cookies and unwanted caches that come with Limewire, Frostwire and Gnutella Network download servers/programs.
28. Delete fonts caches: /com.apple.ATS/, /Users/alextim/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CS3/IllustratorFnt.lst, /Applications/Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional/Adobe Acrobat Professional.app/Contents/MacOS/Resourc, /CMap/AdobeFnt11.lst, /Users/alextim/Library/Acrobat User Data/8.0_ppc/AdobeSysFnt08.lst
29. Cleanse option for printing history logs.
30. Flock support.
31. Hide the default applications listed in the sidebar.
32. New cleanse options for SeaMonkey browser.
33. Clear last login names from Second Life.
34. New cleanse items from Intego's Washing Machine: Shiira, BumperCar, NetNewsWire, Postino, Google Earth.

Known Issues

1. One user reported that cleaning caches duplicates Automator iCal alarms.