TinkerTool System 1.6 review
DownloadTinkerTool System is a professional maintenance tool for Mac OS X.
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TinkerTool System is a professional maintenance tool for Mac OS X. It allows you to change advanced operating system settings and offers a wide variety of maintenance features. The latest version comes with powerful new functions, e.g. verifying the integrity of preference files or removing superfluous language packages.
The tool is fully compliant with Apple's security guidelines for Mac OS X. It does not need an installer and does not require special system packages to be installed. To launch the application, no administrator password is needed.
Here are some key features of "TinkerTool System":
Run the periodic system maintenance scripts by simply pressing a button
Reset the permission settings of Mac OS X system files (*)
Repeat the installation step "Optimizing System Performance"
Clean up cache files of the Internet browsers Safari, Internet Explorer®, Netscape®, Mozilla, FireFox, OmniWeb, Camino, Opera version 6, Opera version 7, iCab, and Shiira
Clean up cache files for the current user
Clean up cache files for the whole system
Clean up cache files for device drivers and kernel extensions
Clean up font cache files
Remove archived copies of system log files
Remove Finder information files (.DS_Store files)
Remove resource fork emulation files ("dot underscore" files)
Clean up temporary print files
Remove core dump files
Force-delete single files or empty folders
Enforce emptying of the Trash if the Finder is unable to do this
Restore the localization settings for your private home folder in case you have updated from Mac OS X 10.1 or have deleted, then recreated some folders
Restore the alias for accessing the Desktop of Classic from Mac OS X
Create symbolic links
Set or unset locks for a large number of files
Set the energy saver options for hard disks to specified values
Deactivate the Sudden Motion Sensor on new PowerBook systems
Tune the network options, including MTU size for each network interface, TCP and UDP receive window sizes, and TCP transmit window size
Enable Quartz Extreme for a wider range of graphics cards
Enable or disable file system journaling for Mac OS X Extended volumes
Enforce diagnostic or safe startup mode for the operating system
Make the system use only one processor or a limited amount of memory for diagnostic purposes
Let the system emulate the programmer's switch on systems not equipped with that switch
Let the system log kernel panic messages directly to screen in case the automatic panic log recovery doesn't work
Change the base system language effective during startup and login without having to reinstall the system (*)
Disable the startup chime
Set preferences for display of the login window
Add text messages to the login window
Remove installed language packages from any folder or volume
Verify the integrity of user preferences files
Remove user preferences files which are no longer in use
Repair the Help Viewer application
Repair the translation feature of the Finder
Rebuild the Launch Services database
Remove all entries for Recent Items in all applications
Show extended user account information
Display extended hardware and manufacturing information for the computer
Access more than 48 log files maintained by Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server.
Limitations:
In demo mode, only the features Reset the permission settings of Mac OS X system files and Change the base system language effective during startup and login are operational. All other features are blocked.
You can also switch the application to evaluation mode. In this mode, all features of the software are fully functional. This allows you to thoroughly test the application before purchasing a registration key. It will launch five times per computer in evaluation mode before it falls back to demo mode. Evaluation mode cannot be transferred between different operating systems running on the same computer.
What's New:
Added new feature for the deinstallation and clean-up of applications which have been installed by "drag and drop". The deinstallation assistant helps to find all components that belong to a given application. The components can selectively be sent to the Trash or be deleted immediately. Compared with other tools of this kind, TinkerTool System offers much thorougher clean-up levels which not only remove components for one user account, but for all user accounts of a computer or for whole network installations. Deinstallation reports can be stored or printed. The deinstall helper can also assist in the removal of widgets, screen savers, preference panes, Internet plug-ins and QuickTime plug-ins.
Added new feature to "thin" Universal applications and other software components like widgets, screen savers, preference panes or plug-ins. The code support for these components can be displayed and the user can remove support for selectable CPU architectures, saving storage space.
Added new feature to selectively remove entries in the Services menu of Mac OS X. The user can manipulate given applications to no longer offer their service entries in the menu. TinkerTool System creates backup copies of the menu items, so the original status can be restored at any time.
The user control to specify paths, folders or files was enhanced in all parts of TinkerTool System. Icons are displayed for all selected file system objects. Names and BSD paths are displayed more user-friendly.
The feature to deinstall language support packages can now additionally remove language support for widgets.
Corrected an issue of an early build of version 1.51 where the language list in the International pane did not restore the user's preferred selection for language deletion when the application was relaunched. Corrected an issue of an early build of version 1.51 where the option was not offered for WLAN cards when running Panther or Tiger.
Corrected an issue of an early build of version 1.51 where the MTU option was not offered for WLAN cards when running Panther or Tiger.
Corrected an issue where the user could not always select or deselect some entries in the detail overview for Access Control List permissions.
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