Feek's macOS useful tools, utilities and applications thread

Barks said:
What's generally considered the best app for "cleaning" up your Mac?
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Have a quick shufti at this thread. Generally just chucking an app in the bin is good enough to get rid of it because all that will be left behind is a preference file that has no residual effect. Something like the appdelete mentioned there will also remove the preference files.

A regular fresh install of macOS really achieves nothing other than taking up your time.
 
X Audio Compression Toolkit (xACT)

A simple audio conversion program, it can convert multiple different audio formats to other formats and do it quickly and easily. I use it to convert FLAC to WAV which I then import into iTunes (Apple Music) and then use iTunes (Music) to convert to Apple lossless. You simply drag your music files in and hit the appropriate Decode/Encode button.

It's been around since 2010 and gets semi regular updates. It's free but there's an option to donate if you want.

http://xact.scottcbrown.org

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It's not free (and I can't remember how much it is but I use WiFi Explorer. I can't tell you how much it is though because I've bought it and the App Store doesn't show a price once you buy something. However much it was, it was worth it because of how useful it's been over the years.

There's a 'lite' version here which is £1.79, that might do what you want, I don't know what the differences are.

It's been around for years and is still regularly updated.
 
Si. said:
KisMac doesn't seem to exist anymore, does anyone have a good Wifi Scanner/analyser that's actually Free and not full of adds adds bloat?
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If you're after just getting a few basics about all the local WiFi networks (including noise, RSSI, channels etc etc) then just use the native diagnostic tool.
 
Looking for a tool to manage file shares. I really want something free if possible. Just a way to auto mount shares on servers without having to manually do it all the time when needed.

Anyone recommend anything?
 
Morning all, got a work question!!

I'm not a MAC/Apple user so struggling to get a firm answer. I have 2 macbooks that i want to security harden:
  • I need to be able to add admin, manager and individual user accounts.

  • I need to add an enforced password policy, such as character length, forced renew (password expiry).

  • Device encryption.

  • Other stuff.
I am told that this can't be done natively and i need additional software such as MDM. Is this correct? Anyone know how much MDM costs for 2 devices? Monthly or one off licence cost?

Happy with Windows OS, Android etc, but not an Apple fanboy :D
 
Feek said:
It's not free (and I can't remember how much it is but I use WiFi Explorer. I can't tell you how much it is though because I've bought it and the App Store doesn't show a price once you buy something. However much it was, it was worth it because of how useful it's been over the years.

There's a 'lite' version here which is £1.79, that might do what you want, I don't know what the differences are.

It's been around for years and is still regularly updated.
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GBP17.99! Is it really worth that?
 
Si. said:
Looking for a tool to manage file shares. I really want something free if possible. Just a way to auto mount shares on servers without having to manually do it all the time when needed.

Anyone recommend anything?
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If connecting on login is all you need, then mount (remember credentials in Keychain) and then add the mounts to your User 'Login Items'.
Alternatively, you could script something.
 
visibleman said:
If connecting on login is all you need, then mount (remember credentials in Keychain) and then add the mounts to your User 'Login Items'.
Alternatively, you could script something.
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It's not as simple as that, macOS is dreadful at remembering and staying connected to network shares. It only takes the slightest thing for them to disconnect and they don't reconnect.

Si. said:
Found this which seems to meet my needs.
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Be interested to know how well it works (and whether it gets updated for apple silicon).
 
ivrytwr3 said:
Morning all, got a work question!!

I'm not a MAC/Apple user so struggling to get a firm answer. I have 2 macbooks that i want to security harden:
  • I need to be able to add admin, manager and individual user accounts.

  • I need to add an enforced password policy, such as character length, forced renew (password expiry).

  • Device encryption.

  • Other stuff.
I am told that this can't be done natively and i need additional software such as MDM. Is this correct? Anyone know how much MDM costs for 2 devices? Monthly or one off licence cost?

Happy with Windows OS, Android etc, but not an Apple fanboy :D
Click to expand...
If it's two devices and a 'one and done' scenario then just do it manually, either through GUI or using Preferences via the 'defaults' command, or you can roll out Profiles (essentially what a MDM does on Apple devices) using the 'Apple Configurator' app (should be on the app store).

If you need to be able to remotely update profiles/configurations then a MDM service is probably the way to do it (although i still argue two devices isn't worth the aggro) - so you could use something free like Munki (it's a bit of a faff as you'll need to package profiles and then deploy them that way) or a paid "cloud" service like Jamf Fundamentals (about £4 p/m per device), Microsoft Intune, Manage Engine, Jumpcloud, Kandji, SimpleMDM, Meraki etc.
 
Feek said:
It's not as simple as that, macOS is dreadful at remembering and staying connected to network shares. It only takes the slightest thing for them to disconnect and they don't reconnect.
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Sure, they won't reconnect automatically with that method, without logging out and back in again, but i guess it depends how often your network shares disconnect.
For a consumer, £9 for Automounter isn't a bad shout but it could easily be scripted and hooked into network up/down changes (i'm sure scripts are already on GitHub if someone Googled).
 
I look at how much time it'd take me to faff about scripting it and trying to make it work against how long it takes to set it up with an app, and the cost of the app. In this case, less than a tenner was worth every penny :)
 
Stats
Lightweight menubar system monitor.

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Price - FREE.

https://github.com/exelban/stats
 
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