The more you use anything – your Mac included – the more likely it is like it becomes. A solution is to move on to a new machine, but the more economical decision is to make what you already have better. To help your computer feel almost new, or at least cleaner and less chaotic, we have set up this guide with useful techniques and applications that helped us maintain a more civilized computer. I have been using these tips since I published this guide for the first time in 2021, and they helped keep my MacBook Air 2018 in appearance and race (almost) like new.
How to clean the screen and body of your Mac
Although there are many products specially designed to help you clean your computer, I found that the simplest approach works better – and it is Apple recommends. To start, you need water in a sprayer bottle and a clean microfiber cloth. You can use regular or distilled water; The advantage of the latter is that it is much less likely to leave residues on your Mac, especially on the screen. You can buy distilled water in a grocery store or make yourself With simple kitchen utensils. Anyway, it is more affordable than dedicated cleaning solutions. If you do not already have microfiber rags, Amazon sells affordable 24 packs You can get about $ 11.
Another product that I found that can facilitate work is a Giottos rocket blower. I can’t say enough good things about this little tool. This will prevent you from buying expensive and unnecessary cans of compressed air.
As for the cleaning process of your Mac, the most important point to remember is to start with a clean cloth (which is part of the reason why we recommend that you buy in bulk). You will save yourself time and frustration this way. Start by turning off your computer and unplugging it. If you have bought a rocket blower, use it now to remove any dust. Otherwise, take a dry microfiber cloth and review your computer. Pay particular attention to the keys, especially if you have an older mac with a butterfly keyboard.
Then reduce one side of your cleaning cloth with water. Never spray liquid directly to your computer. You will have more control this way and you will avoid getting humidity in the interns of your Mac. I always clean the screen first, because the last thing I want to do is create more work for me by transferring the dirt from another part of my computer to the screen.
The last step is to polish and polish your computer with the dry side of the fabric. Be soft here because you don’t want to scrape the screen or any other part of. That’s it. Your Mac should be clean again.
How to organize your hard drive
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
One of the most difficult parts of cleaning your Mac’s hard drive is where to start. After all, most of us have applications on our computers that we do not even remember having installed in the first place. The good news is that MacOS comes with a tool to help you with this exact problem.
Go towards System settings > General > Storage. Here you will find a tool that separates your storage into large categories such as “applications”, “documents”, “music”, “photos”, etc. Double-click on an element in the list, such as applications, to see the last time you have used an application and the amount of space it takes. You can delete applications from the same window.
The applications section is particularly useful because you can see the last time you have used a program, as well as if it is no longer supported by the operating system or if it is exceeded thanks to a more recent version.
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
You don’t need me to tell you to uninstall programs that you do not use, but what you may not know is that there is a better way to erase them than just dragging them to the trash. A free program called APPCCLEP You will help you find all the files and folders that would be left behind if you should delete an application.
After deleting all the applications you don’t need, go to the Documents section. The name is somewhat deceptive here, because you will find more than text files and Excel calculation sheets. The documents, in this case, prove to be the term accompanied by the tool for a variety of files, including those that occupy a large amount of space. You can also securely delete any DMGS (disk image files with the .DMG extension) for which you have installed the related application. The other sections of the storage space are explicit. The only one else I will mention is that if you have been using an iPhone for some time, there is a good chance that you have old iOS backups stored on your computer. You can also delete them safely.
Tips and tricks to keep a careful office and a researcher
Igor Bonifacic
Let’s start with the menu bar. This may not be technically part of the office, but storage can greatly help make everything else less congested. My recommendation here is to download an application called Bartender. At first glance, it is a simple program allowing you to hide the unwanted menu bar elements behind a three -point icon. However, the bartender’s strength is that you get a lot of personalization options. For example, you can define a trigger that will automatically move the status icon of the hiding place when your computer is not connected to a power outlet.
While we are on the subject of the menu bar, take a second to navigate to the system Parameters > General > Connect the elements And look at all the applications that start when you start your system. You can speed up your system by preparing this list only for the programs you use frequently.
Regarding the office itself, the best advice is less. Nothing will make your computer look like a congested disorder than an occupied office. Files and batteries can help, but for most people, I suspect that part of the problem is that they use their office as a way to quickly and easily find files that are important to them.
If you have already had trouble finding a specific file or folder on your computer, try to use the taggage capacities of your Mac. Start by opening the Finder settings menu (Order + ,,) and click on the Tags tongue. You can use the default provided by MacOS or create yours. Drag the ones you think you will use most often in favorite areas at the bottom of the Preferences window. This will make things that they are easily accessible when you want to use them. To add a tag in a file or folder, click on it while holding the CTRL key and select the one you want from the drop -down menu. You can also mark a file while working in an application. Keep in mind that you can apply several tags to a single file or folder, and you can even apply them to applications.
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
What makes the tags so useful in macOS is that they can appear in the side bar of the Finder window, and can easily be viewed either directly with Finder or using Siri. As long as you have a system to organize your files, even a simple, you will find it easier to follow them. For example, I like to apply a commitment tag to all files related to my work. I will add an “important” tag if it’s something critical and I want to find quickly.
A tool that can help to defeat your Finder experience is Alfred. It is indeed a more powerful version of the Apple projectors’ function. Among other things, you can use Alfred to find and launch applications quickly. There is a little learning curve, but once you understand, Alfred will change the way you use your Mac for the best.
How to organize your windows and tabs
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget
If you have used both macOS and Windows 10, you will know that Apple’s operating system does not come with the best window management tools. You can click and hold on the full green button to tile a window on the left or right side of your screen, but that is almost everything and the function has always been less precise than its Windows counterpart.
My suggestion is to download an application which reproduces the slamming function of Windows 10. You have several competing options which offer more or less the same features. My go-to is a $ 5 program called Magnet. If you want a free alternative, consult Rectangle. Another option is Betersnaptolwhich offers more features than the magnet but is not as clean of an interface. The three applications give you many more ways to configure your windows than you get the tool integrated into macOS. They are also delivered with a shortcut support, which means that you can quickly configure your windows and go to work.
This article originally appeared on engadget to
