How to clean and speed up your Mac

Here are some great tips for cleaning and speeding up your Mac:

• Start with the outside: Before you begin cleaning up, first turn the computer off and unplug it. Use a damp, lint-free cloth to wipe away any dust, oils and smudges on your keyboard or screen. Avoid using chemicals as they could corrode your computer. However, when dealing with stubborn dirt, you can use mild chemicals to clean it off. If you have a computer blower, you can use it to get rid of the dust hidden in exhaust vents, crevices and cracks. Don't forget to also clean your workstation and get rid of all the clutter;

• Get up to date: Apple regularly releases several hardware and software updates. Updating will significantly improve the performance of your Mac. Therefore, take time to install the latest application updates, security updates and patches. After ensuring that your system is up to date, it would be advisable to uninstall any applications that you don't use. You could choose to uninstall the apps by simply dragging them from your application folder to the trash. However, this will still leave some associated files in your computer. It would therefore be advisable to use uninstallers such as AppCleaner and AppZapper to remove unwanted programs completely;

• Retrieve hard drive space: Low disk space is a problem experienced by many Mac users. In many cases, precious disk space is eaten up by unnecessary files on your machine. Most of the software installed comes with a whole load of useless data, such as cache files, crash reports and cookies. If you don't delete them, this clutter will continue to accumulate as you use your Mac. In addition, you might have several duplicate files on your machine that were created when downloading content. You can use tools such as Clean My Mac 2 to get rid of duplicate files and clean up your Mac quickly;

• Eliminate the languages: The extra languages that come with your Mac could significantly slow down your machine. As there is little chance that you will use languages such as Yiddish, Uzbek and Tigrinya, it would be advisable to delete them. This will free lots of valuable space on your hard disk. You can use tools like monolingual.sourceforge.net to get rid of such languages;

• Clean up your desktop: Having too many open folders on your desktop can also put a strain on your Mac. To ensure that your machine runs faster, minimise the number of folders on your desktop;

• Close applications properly: Many Mac users simple minimise programs and assume that they are closed. However, the fact is that such programs are still running. To close your applications properly, right-click on the icon and click on 'Quit'. Closing your applications this way will save your memory, thus reducing the load on your Mac's processor.

After cleaning up your computer, it would be advisable to take a disk image of your cleaned up Mac. This will come in handy later when you need to restore your settings after a hard drive replacement or upgrade. You can do this using a tool such as Carbon Copy Cloner.