Even though Macs don’t tend to break down if no maintenance is given to them, you can definitely get a boost by doing it regularly. And that system maintenance doesn’t have to be a chore — doing it correctly can take less time and work than one may imagine. That’s where Cocktail comes in — the long-acclaimed maintenance/optimization app for the Mac.

Design. In order to simplify the process, Cocktail features a single window interface for the whole app. That simplicity can do wonders for when you don’t know where to start with the system maintenance/optimization process.

It’s a power tool in the form of a fantastic app. If a service exists for Mac OS X, chances are that Cocktail can do something about it without breaking a sweat. Your Mac is divided into five sections within the app: Disks, System, Files, Network, and Interface. There’s also a sixth section called Pilot, where you can schedule different processes to take place automatically — thus making the whole chore a breeze to run. Cocktail has a lot of features, the ones that shine out the most are the disk permissions, maintenance scripts, data clean-up, network mods, and interface customization. All of these features mentioned barely talk about what Cocktail has to offer as a whole.

Limitations. There are none that should be a problem with Cocktail. Although, one thing that may be a bother for new users is trying to decipher the techno-lingo. For example, do you know what is a DS Store file? Fortunately, as mentioned, most of the app is kept user-friendly for the most important parts.

Final thoughts. Hands-down, Cocktail is the best maintenance/optimization app available for the Mac. But top-notch service isn’t free in this case — Cocktail has a $15 price tag. That may be a deal-breaker for some people, since there are more than a couple similar apps available for free. Still, after testing out Cocktail, I don’t think I’ll be going back to let those freebies run my Mac — not to mention all the features that Cocktail offers, which many end up missing in its competitors.

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[tags]Apple,Mac,Software,Cocktail[/tags]