Amidst an increasingly crowded field of catch-all Mac utilities where the program works to address several concerns at once (i.e., cleaning up gigabytes of system clutter, allowing the user to see what’s eating the most of their drive space, system optimization, maintenance scripts, malware removal, etc.), MacPaw’s CleanMyMac X latest update stands out.
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The modules work well, there’s a clean user interface, and the software has stepped far beyond its initial selling point of helping to clear up dozens of gigabytes of extraneous garbage files to take on new tasks. This, in turn, puts it into somewhat risky territory and leaves a little room for improvement.
Version 4.11.0 stands as the newest version and includes much-publicized updates to its macOS Menu Bar. The new features include menus that function as deep dives into your hard drive’s capacity and health as well as your laptop battery’s condition, temperature, and overall condition (which is a nice change compared to a generic S.M.A.R.T. monitor, which may or may not warn you in time before one of your hard drives decides to go belly up).
[Read our full review of CleanMyMac]
A prominent display of your CPU usage and hardware temperature also come in handy, and while it won’t physically order an external USB hard drive, attach it to your computer, and set up Apple’s Time Machine backup feature, it might flash a prominent warning before the day you turn on your Mac and find your hard drive has decided not to cooperate anymore.
The Updater module seems to be in a tougher spot, and I realize that keeping abreast of the entire Mac ecosystem’s assortment of software update is a monumental task for any company. This is where MacPaw seems to be overreaching some, as the module located either extremely significant updates to Microsoft Office or strange third-party updates, such as the new versions of the ever-handy MacTracker or GraphicConverter, but failed to notice the new Google Chrome update during my tests. This comes off as a bit worrying, and I feel like MacPaw may have bitten off more than it can chew here unless it devotes even more time and resources to finding every Mac update under the sun.
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I’ve heard and read about CleanMyMac occasionally being categorized as malware or adware in recent years, and I don’t believe it. I think the software honestly does a measure of good, is worth its registration fee, and functions as a good means of disposing of gigabytes of unknown system detritus, easily uninstalling applications, customizing system extensions, readily viewing here your drive space has gone, and quickly seeing what kind of condition your hard drive and battery are in. There’s merit to these achievements, and it’s worth trying out, even if MacPaw will have to someday realize its features can’t be everything to everyone.
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Compare CleanMyMac to other Mac cleaner solutions – visit our round up of the Best Mac Cleaner software.