There's no shortage of tuneup utilities are designed for Windows machines—but what about Macs? Apple computers require tightening, too. The free CCleaner aims to clean up your OS X system (version 10.5 and greater) by managing cookies (bits of data used to track your Web browsing activity), repairing permissions, and freeing up hard disk space. CCleaner worked as touted in my tests, improving system performance, reclaiming GB, and helping protect online privacy, but it didn't improve the overall system performance as well as some other apps we've tested.

Getting Started
CCleaner features a simple gray and white interface that displays the version number and your Mac's system specs (OS version, CPU, RAM) across the top, as well as three vertically-aligned icons in the left column: Cleaner, Tools, and Options. Tapping any of the icons begins the cleaning experience. "Options" is where you tinker with cookies from the various Web sites that you've visited. A site's cookie is listed in the left column ("Cookies To Delete") by default, but should you want to keep them, you can move them to the right column ("Cookies to Keep") by highlighting a cookie and clicking the appropriate directional arrow key. Eliminating the cookies is as simple as clicking the delete button.

"Tools" is the method by which you Uninstall programs. You do this by highlighting an app icon and clicking "Uninstall." You can also Repair Permissions (when access rights are damaged) and Erase Freespace (which writes data over unused space, preventing prying eyes from digging up deleted files with data recovery software). These options aren't well defined; the function descriptions use obtuse language which may cause confusion among casual users.

The meat of CCleaner is "Cleaner," which lets you scrub the system and get rid of junk files. Clicking "Analyze" causes the app to scan your Mac's hard drive and return a report detailing the number of files found and their sizes. CCleaner returned nearly 4,000 junk files when I ran the program, which the program removed after I clicked "Delete." It was super-simple.

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Marginal Performance Improvements

I tested CCleaner's ability to whip a Mac back into shape by performing three tests—running the Geekbench (a set of benchmarks designed to measure CPU and memory performance), measuring boot times, and transferring a 1.1GB folder of mixed media to external storage—before and after running the software to compare the computer's potency. Each test was run three times and averaged. Before CCleaner scrubbed the system, the 1.83-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mac Mini with 1GB of RAM, and 80GB hard drive achieved a 2,540 Geekbench score, booted in 56.7 seconds, and transferred the 1.1GB folder in 1 minute and 27 seconds.

There wasn't much system performance enhancement after running CCleaner in terms of GeekBench numbers. In fact, the GeekBench score didn't budge—it remained exactly the same. That said, the boot time decreased to just 49.2 seconds, the file transfer speed dropped to 1 minute and 8 seconds, and the app recovered over 3GB of hard drive space.

Should You Use CCleaner?

If you're looking to give your OS X laptop or desktop a shot of new life, CCleaner is a solid choice. It's free, simple to use, and most importantly, effective. Its GeekBench performance was a bust, and two poorly-defined features may cause you to consult Google for explanations, but don't let that stop you from downloading this OS X utility.

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