Cocktail TotalFinder Nerdtool

Cocktail ($29 – about £19, maintain.se) is a generalpurpose optimisation utility for OS X that runs maintenance scripts. Many of its features are similar to OnyX, but it has a much friendlier interface. It has a mode called Pilot that enables you to schedule when maintenance scripts run. Network administrators can use it to tweak network performance, including capping the speed at which interfaces connect. Cocktail also enables one-click fixes of databases used by Spotlight, Mail and Time Machine, making it a quick way to overcome problems you might encounter with those features. If you miss the coloured folders from earlier editions of OS X then check out TotalFinder ($18 – about £12, totalfinder.binaryage. com). Yosemite’s coloured tags appear as small circles. TotalFinder enables you to change the colour of a whole folder, which is great for highlighting important items. It also adds a split-pane view and makes a Finder window only ever a key press away. Nerdtool (free, mutablecode. com) enables you to display information on your desktop. You can overlay the desktop with calendar information, quotes, map data, weather information, web pages and information about the status of your Mac. The app enables you to choose which font is used, and the size and colour in which things are displayed. It can be quite a complex experience for newcomers, but follow this tutorial at MakeUseOf to get the hang of things: bit.ly/nerdtooltutorial.