Recently I’ve stumbled upon an interesting app called MacKeeper that claims to be a one-stop shop for Mac users. Roughly speaking, its developers took all popular Mac maintenance apps – CleanMyMac, AppZapper, SuperDuper, VirtualLab etc – and put them into one app. Let’s see how things turned out!
Keeping Viruses and Thieves out of your Mac
MacKeeper’s security features are Antivirus and Anti-Theft. Antivirus is an optional feature that should be installed separately. As I don’t need an antivirus on a Mac, I installed it just for the sake of this review. Well, luckily, it didn’t find any viruses on my Mac, but the scan seemed to work well. MacKeeper Antivirus can also schedule scans for specific date and time, and enable real-time protection to prevent viruses from getting into your Mac. MacKeeper antivirus deals with malware, scamware, phishing websites and other kinds of malware.
The Anti-Theft feature is a must even for those who constantly keep an eye on their Mac, as life is unpredictable and nobody knows what will happen next. Once enabled, Anti-Theft will send reports about your Mac’s location, and when you report the theft at MacKeeper’s website, the reports will become more frequent. Your Mac’s webcam will be also involved in the process by taking the shots of the thief. All this stuff will be sent to you by email for you to be fully equipped when reporting the crime to the police.
Keeping your Data Safe and Sound
Being the first feature in the data control bunch, Data Encryptor will do its best to hide your data from everyone, even from yourself. The case is that this tool uses complex cobwebs of passwords and encryption mechanisms to put your data safely away. Therefore, if you lose the password used to open the encrypted files, you won’t see them again. Something should be done with it, but apart from this the encryptor seems to work pretty good.
Another way to keep your data safe is to backup. MacKeeper’s Backup tool is distinct from Time Machine in that it backups not the whole hard drive but individual items such as files and folders, and the backups can be kept synced even on external storage media. A good companion for Backup is Undelete that can recover deleted files in case you forget to backup or just remove the files by accident. By the way, Undelete supports the external media as well. But if you remove the files using MacKeeper’s Shredder tool, then even Undelete won’t be able to recover them.
Keeping your Hard Drive Free from Junk
MacKeeper offers a whole arsenal of hard drive cleanup weapons. Apart from classic hard drive cleanup that includes removal of caches, logs and other temporary junk, it can also detect and remove all useless duplicate files.
But what I like best about the cleaning toolbox is the uninstaller. The point is that if you remove Mac apps by dragging them to Trash, such removal would leave behind a lot of leftovers. Don’t drag the apps to Trash – use MacKeeper’s Wise Uninstaller instead. This tool deals not only with apps but also with widgets, preference panes and plugins, giving you a detailed view of their structure and allowing you to remove all of their components with just one click.
Keeping your Apps Up to Date
Update Tracker is the most useful tool in the Optimization group. It sorts all of your apps by the Up to Date and Out of Date parameters, and the newest versions of the outdated apps can be downloaded within a couple of clicks. You can also create the Favorite list of your most important apps as well as the Blacklist for those you don’t need to update.
Final Remarks
MacKeeper is a nice app for those who like to keep everything in one place. The price is quite attractive, and the app is definitely worth a try.