1. Recommended Apps/Tools for Mac OS X
Note:​ ​ Any advice contained in this document is to be considered general in nature and to represent my personal views
only, not that of Apple Inc. or it’s subsidiaries. Any such advice is provided without warranty, express or implied. For
specific concerns or for more information regarding Apple products and OS X, visit​ ​https://www.apple.com/support​, an
Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.
App URL Purpose Free ($) ?
1Password https://agilebits.com/
onepassword
Password management No
VLC Media Player http://www.videolan.
org/vlc/index.html
Audio & video playback, wide range of supported formats Yes
OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigrou
p.com/more/
Determine what disk space assigned as ‘Other’ actually is so you
can safely delete things to free it up
Yes
Alfred http://www.alfredapp
.com/
Productivity and workflow management, like a customisable
version of OS X Spotlight
Yes
AppCleaner http://www.freemacs
oft.net/appcleaner/
Uninstall utility, more thorough than drag + drop to trash Yes
Ccleaner https://www.piriform.
com/mac/ccleaner
Disk cleaner, an old favourite for many Windows users Yes
BetterTouchTool http://www.boastr.ne
t/index.html#feature
s
Productivity, allows window snapping and arrangement like in
Windows 7+
Yes

2. Coconut Battery http://www.coconut­f
lavour.com/
Battery statistics and health Yes
Bartender http://www.macbarte
nder.com
Allows you to fully customise the Menu Bar, including hiding icons No
iStat Menus http://bjango.com/m
ac/istatmenus/
Comprehensive full system stats to satisfy your inner geek No
Menu Meters http://www.ragingme
nace.com/software/
menumeters/
CPU, memory, disk, and network monitoring tools for Mac OS X
(not as full­featured and aesthetically pleasing as iStat Menus but
is open­source. I like running the Menu Meters RAM monitoring
tool showing traditional RAM usage, along with iStat Menus
showing memory pressure, for comparison)
Yes
gfxCardStatus https://gfx.io/ Allows you to easily set either or both GPU’s to run, and also useful
for determining apps which may be draining battery by turning the
discrete GPU on (requires a Macbook Pro with dual GPU setup i.e.
Intel integrated + discrete GPU)
Yes
Total Finder http://totalfinder.bina
ryage.com
Tabbed Finder windows (Yes, Mavericks now does this too). Best
feature is the added ability to easily Cut files in addition to Copy via
the GUI
No
Burn http://burn­osx.sourc
eforge.net/Pages/En
glish/home.html
Comprehensive utility for burning all types of disk Yes
Handbrake http://handbrake.fr/f
eatures.php
Video transcoder Yes

3. TeamViewer http://www.teamview
er.com/en/index.asp
x
Incredibly easy to use remote desktop app Yes
SuperDuper! http://www.shirt­poc
ket.com/SuperDuper
/SuperDuperDescrip
tion.html
Time Machine alternative, creates a bootable backup file so you
don’t have to wait for Time Machine to restore if your internal
storage goes down
No
Libre Office http://www.libreoffic
e.org/
Open source productivity suite; an alternative to Microsoft Office.
Forked from Open Office by developers who left after Oracle
purchased Sun Microsystems
Yes
Transmission https://www.transmi
ssionbt.com/
“A fast, easy and free BitTorrent client” Yes
Deluge
http://deluge­torrent.
org/
“Open source, cross­platform BitTorrent client.” (many more
configuration options than Transmission)
Yes
Name Changer http://mrrsoftware.co
m/namechanger/
Batch renaming of files Yes
Sophos for Mac http://www.sophos.c
om/en­us/products/fr
ee­tools/sophos­anti
virus­for­mac­home­
edition.aspx
Anti virus protection for OS X (though I argue this is largely an
unnecessary tax on system resources. Might be useful if you’re
downloading files with a view to then using them on a Windows
machine though)
Yes
AdwareMedic http://www.adwarem
edic.com/index.php
Excellent resource for removing the growing number of adware
infections finding their way onto OS X machines via accidental
Yes

4. unwanted installations or bundled software, leading to browser
redirections, popups etc.
Knox https://agilebits.com/
knox
Easily create and manage encrypted vaults. From the creators of
1Password
No
TFTP http://www.mactech
nologies.com/index.
php?page=downloa
ds#tftpclient
Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) is a simple FTP. Great for
pushing router firmware via Ethernet if a failed update has occurred
and nuked the router etc.
Yes
cDock http://cdock.sourcef
orge.net/
Customise the dock appearance in OS X 10.9 & 10.10 (including
background colour and transparency)
Yes
Recovery Partition
Creator
http://musings.silvert
ooth.us/2014/07/rec
overy­partition­creat
or­3­8/
Applescript that allows you to recreate a recovery partition if you
have deleted it whilst formatting a drive (requires you to have
downloaded the OS X Install package from the App Store, approx.
5GB in size. I have used it successfully to recreate recovery
partition under 10.10 using the Yosemite Install package, just
choose 10.9 when prompted to choose between ’10.7 or 10.8’ and
’10.9’. Backup first though!)
Yes
Chromium http://chromium.woo
lyss.com/
Browser compiled using the open source code behind Google
Chrome (Essentially Chrome without Google services, proprietary
codecs etc.)
Yes