TinkerTool System
TinkerTool System 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 tool, no administrator password is needed.
The features marked with an asterisk (*) below are available without any restrictions even if TinkerTool System runs in demo mode.
Features
- Clear the cache of the directory services client
- Repair the printer subsystem of Mac OS X (only necessary in Panther)
- Clean up cache files of the Internet browsers Safari 2, Internet Explorer®, Netscape® Navigator 9, FireFox, OmniWeb 5, Camino, Opera 9, iCab 4, Shiira 1, or Flock
- 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 the 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)
- Removes hidden Macintosh support files from volumes that should be given to users of third-party operating systems
- 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
- Destroy resource forks of files
- Let Mac OS X analyze the contents of unknown files
- Modify Type and Creator codes of files
- Mark files or folders as visible or invisible for the Finder
- Restore the alias for accessing the Desktop of Classic from Mac OS X (not necessary in Leopard)
- Create symbolic links
- Set or unset locks for a large number of files
- Set the energy saver options for hard disks to specified values
- Disable the Sudden Motion Sensor
- Prevent portable computers from automatically waking when the display lid is opened (Tiger or later)
- Allow the automatic addition of removable disk volumes even if no user is logged in (Tiger or later)
- Prevent that certain hard drive volumes are automatically activated by Mac OS X (Tiger or later)
- Tune the network options, including TCP and UDP receive window sizes, TCP transmit window size, and socket buffer size (not necessary in Leopard)
- Set the Maximum Transfer Unit for non-Ethernet cards
- Enable Quartz Extreme for a wider range of graphics cards (Panther only)
- Set the scaling factor (physical display resolution) for the screen (Tiger or later) (*)
- Enable or disable file system journaling for Mac OS X Extended volumes
- Enable or disable Spotlight (Tiger only)
- Remove or reindex Spotlight metadata stores (Tiger or later)
- View storage statistics for Spotlight metadata stores (Tiger or later)
- 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
- Display additional status information in the login window (Tiger or later)
- Select the background image for the login screen (Tiger or later)
- Remove installed language packages from any folder or volume
- Verify the integrity of a user's preferences files (not only checking the syntax of "plist" files, but the actual structure of the preferences themselves)
- Delete preferences files no longer in use for a certain period of time
- Repair the damaged display of System Preferences (Tiger or later)
- Repair the Help Viewer application
- Rebuild the Launch Services database
- Repair the translation feature of the Finder
- Restore the translation settings for your private home folder in case you have updated from Mac OS X 10.1 or have deleted, then recreated some folders
- Remove all entries for Recent Items in all applications
- Verify a user's Login Items
- Show extended user account information
- Assist in the deinstallation of applications which have been installed by a drag-and-drop operation
- Deinstall widgets, screen savers, preference panes, QuickTime plug-ins, or Internet plug-ins which have been added to the system
- Remove code support for unneeded processor architectures in universal applications or other software components
- Remove or restore entries in the Services menu of Mac OS X
- Enable or disable support for Access Control Lists on HFS volumes (Tiger or later)
- Create and modify Access Control Lists for file system objects (Tiger or later)
- Display the effective permissions for specific users on file system objects (Tiger or later)
- 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 (more than 80 in Leopard)
- 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" at any time