Degunking Your Mac, Tiger Edition

reviewed by Julie M. Willingham

From the time I opened the front cover to “The Degunking 12-Step Program”, which is followed by time-limit degunking from spare moments up to half a day, I wanted to sit at my computer and use this book.

I am both an information junkie and a packrat, always looking for and saving things that might be useful someday. My desktop is littered with folders I use often, most of them with some sort of icon that I can’t resist showing off, on top of wallpaper that I really like but can barely see under all those icons. (Some of those icons are just attached to empty folders because I like them so much!) I know I should organize so that my husband can find things in my user account, and so that I can work more efficiently, but I never seem to find the time.

The mere title of this book got me interested in reading and reviewing it, and I had great hopes that I could organize and tame things on my computer. And though I haven’t done everything Ms. Ballew suggests, I have made progress. Unfortunately, as with other types of organizing, if you are a procrastinator or are detail-oriented or have difficulty making decisions, nothing can make you actually degunk your computer.

Table of Contents for Degunking™ Your Mac, Tiger Edition

I started by reading through the whole book, except for the chapter on iPod (don’t have one yet), and the iChat section of Chapter 8 (unlikely to use it). Then I set to work doing what the author suggested, and was pleasantly surprised to find that by following the advice in Chapter 3, I eliminated 1.2 GB of gunk from my Documents folder alone.

Working further along in the book, I uninstalled some programs that I don’t use, took Dashboard off my Dock because I have a dialup connection, archived some old e-mail, and backed up the entire computer again. I got rid of all the non-system fonts in languages that I can’t read, as well as many that I never liked. I still plan is to put iTunes  and all those cool downloaded wallpapers into the Shared folder so my husband and I can both access them without duplicating efforts. (Of course, this will be after I get around to sorting all those tunes and pictures!) And after having fully read the applicable chapters, I plan to use VoiceOver to let my computer read me things that need to be proofread, to improve security, and learn to use Automator.

Joli Ballew explains in plain simple terms what you should do to improve your Mac’s performance, why it matters, and how to do it. She includes recommendations for freeware and regular maintenance tasks that will help keep your Mac running well and how to get your hardware to help you. I am really impressed by how simple the actual procedures are and I would recommend this 5-macC book to everyone.