CleanMyMac gets even better with new look, M1 Mac support

CleanMyMac from MacPaw is an all-in-one macOS solution designed to keep your Mac clean and to secure space from your computer’s hard drive. It’s even better with version X (yep, just X) thanks a nifty new look and support for Apple’s M1 Macs.

Why do you need CleanMyMac since a Mac runs its own maintenance scripts once a day, a week and a month? Because there are still files like universal binaries, localization files, hidden trashes, and others that take lots of space and remain untouched by these scripts. Enter CleanMyMac, which prompts you to scan your Mac every month — unless you designate another schedule.

CleanMyMac has oodles of features, so you’ll have to spend some time checking out its nooks and crevices. However, it has a well-designed, intuitive interface so you can start using it immediately after your purchase.

When you first launch CleanMyMac, you’re able to customize the software with the Preferences panel. For example, you can enable a personal digital assistant that offers suggestions and can remind you to run a scan of your Mac for junk.

What kind of junk? Temporary files to free up space and improve your system’s performance. Unneeded translation files. Various broken items. Email attachments (though they remain accessible via the Mail Inbox.) Incomplete downloads in iTunes. 

As soon as you begin using your Mac, it begins accumulating unnecessary files. CleanMyMac automates the process of finding and deleting these files (which can include slim unused languages, universal binaries, logs, caches and more). It allows you to save time on some non-straightforward operations such as correct application uninstallation, widget and plug-in removal, start-up items management and other cleaning tasks. Delete unneeded files and your Mac will have more room on its drive — and, most likely, be more stable and run faster.

The Trash Bins module is designed to faceplate the emptying of Trash folders all over your system, including Photos Trash. The groups you see on the main screen illustrate the particular Trash items you have and how much space they use.

The Extensions Manager allows you to remove or disable various extensions, including plugins (additions that expand application functionality, but are often hard to remove), Preference Pane applications that are built into your System

Preferences (and which come with tons of support files spread over your Mac), widgets (those small Dashboard apps) and login items (the list of applications that should launch automatically upon startup of your Mac).

Not only can CleanMyMac hunt down and “kill” unnecessary files (though you can designate it to leave certain type of files — say user logs — alone), it can, as mentioned, uninstall programs you’re no longer using. There’s also a feature for getting rid of Dashboard Widgets. The first time I ran it on my iMac, CleanMyMac found 12.69GB of “junk” to clean.

If there are files or folders that you’re sure you want deleted forever, you can use the Quick Erase Files feature, with the Secure Erase option selected. CleanMyMac overwrites the data three times. Just be sure you really want to delete the data forever cause when it’s gone, it’s really gone.

Perhaps the crowning feature of the latest version is that CleanMyMac takes full advantage of the M1 chip in the 2020 MacBook Pro (13-inch), MacBook Air, and Mac mini. However, I also like the new look that matches the aesthetics of macOS Big Sur. The user interface (UI) enhancements include:

° Refreshed colors and simplified UI elements;

° Cool-looking, glass-like icons;

° A sidebar menu that provides easier navigation;

° 3D Parallax animations and interactive hover effects;

° Micro animations that draw your attention to what’s important at a particular moment.

Clean My Mac X also adds a new feature to the System Junk module: Universal Binaries, files that allow apps to run on both Intel and Apple Silicon architectures. However, since your Mac has only one architecture, you can safely remove the code that provides support for another architecture and save your disk space.