Clean up the garbage the Mac leaves behind

Tuesday 7 April 2009 - Filed under Tech Notes

People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?

(Rodney King on television pleading for peace, 1 May, 1992)

Windows versus Mac OS X. Microsoft versus Apple. The Great Tech Divide is still prevalent in 2009 and the latest Microsoft ad campaign has once again ignited the fiery debate among geeks. But the truth is, those two universes do get along with each other quite well and a keen individual can always have the best of both. Knowing that, debating which is better and why can be wasteful. Besides, when it comes to computers, I subscribe to the view that personal preferences should remain just that, personal preferences. Let me, however, say this: Life is too short for bad operating systems. I won’t elaborate any further than that. Just stick to what you know and try and get as productive as you can with it.

Back to the topic of getting along, here are the facts for those who didn’t already know:

• A PC and a Mac can talk to each other on the network.
• A document created on a PC can be read and edited on a Mac just fine (most of the time), and vice versa.
• Many programs run on both Windows and Mac OS X; Microsoft Office, iTunes, Skype, and most Web browsers, for example. Even if you can’t find your favourites on the other side of the fence, there are almost always free/affordable alternatives.
• A PC and a Mac can even run each other’s operating system in a variety of ways, either to be able to use business-critical applications or just for fun.

Here comes trouble
Besides running Windows on Mac hardware via virtualisation, I find myself transferring all sorts of files between Mac OS X and Windows pretty much all the time. That’s fine, but one gripe I had for years – literally – was that each operating system would leave its own trails on top of the actual files or documents. Those extra bits of information are harmless and come in the form of hidden files and folders on the USB stick or portable hard drive. It’s absolutely a non-issue within the same operating system, but when you transfer files across to a different operating system, you can’t help but notice a bunch of extra meaningless “stuff” that sticks out and takes up precious space. You can simply delete them every time you see them, but it does amount to annoyance if not a chore.

Bad bad Mac
Of the two operating systems, Mac OS X is the nastier offender. Windows tends to automatically create a hidden folder to do with Recycle Bin inside the USB stick or portable hard drive, but that’s about it. Mac OS X, on the other hand, is capable of littering a whole array of Mac-specific hidden files and folders everywhere, each of which is enough to cause the Windows user a great deal of confusion if their Windows Explorer is set to show hidden files by default. To me, that was a moderately annoying issue until I thought of a ridiculously simple solution that recursively deletes all irrelevant Mac-specific hidden files present on the USB drive or hard drive at the click of a mouse (or just a few keystrokes).

I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain… not
To do this, create a batch file called “cleanup.bat” or a name of your choice in that drive. Insert this one line:

del *.* /f /q /s /a:h

It’s a DOS command, meaning you run the clean-up operation from Windows, not Mac OS X. All it does is find and delete files in that drive that are marked hidden, and it works extremely fast without you having to manually rummage through individual folders and subfolders. Make sure the command includes the /a:h switch, otherwise it may delete all of your actual documents, too – Be very careful there and also pay attention to where you’re running the batch file from, i.e. don’t run it against the all-important C:\. The command is not perfect and it still leaves two hidden folders behind (Spotlight and Trash) but that’s no biggie compared to the numerous other hidden pieces of garbage that are taken care of.

Can we get along without clutter? Yes we can
So, run this clean-up script however often you want. Exchanging files and documents between Windows and Mac OS X is finally free of clutter.

2009-04-07  »  JK