CleanMyMac from MacPaw (http://www.macpaw.com) is an all-in-one Mac OS X solution designed to keep your Mac clean and to secure space from your Mac’s hard drive.

The software has more than 50 features, so you'll have to spend some time checking out its nooks and crevices. However, it has a well-designed, intuitive interface so you can start using it immediately after your purchase.

When you first launch CleanMyMac, you're able to customize the software with the Preferences panel. You can choose between a Titanium (pictured) and Marble color theme. You can also tell CleanMyMac how you want it to deal with devices on your system.

You can choose "Enable automatic trashes cleanup." This will remove service Trash folders from the external devices you eject.

You can enable automatic Mac OS X service junk cleanup. This will automatically remove service .DS_Store files and .Spotlight-V1000 folders on eject. (Mac OS X automatically creates these items on every removable device.)

You can enable automatic Windows service junk cleanup. This feature will automatically remove Thumbs.db files and recycled folders on eject. Windows creates these items on every removable device.

I enable all three options. Why? As soon as you begin using your Mac, it begins accumulating unnecessary files. CleanMyMac automates the process of finding and deleting these files (which can include slim unused languages, universal binaries, logs, caches and more). It allows you to save time on some non-straightforward operations such as correct application uninstallation, widget and plug-in removal, start-up items management and other cleaning tasks. Delete unneeded files and your Mac will have more room on its hard drive -- and, most likely, be more stable and run faster.

Not only can CleanMyMac hunt down and "kill" unnecessary files (though you can designate it to leave certain type of files -- say user logs -- alone), it can, as mentioned, uninstall programs you're no longer using. There's also a feature for getting rid of Dashboard Widgets. The first time I ran it on my iMac -- which has a 2TB drive -- scanning took less than three minutes. CleanMyMac found 12.69GB of "junk" to clean.

If there are files or folders that you're sure you want deleted forever, you can use the Quick Erase Files feature, with the Secure Erase option selected. CleanMyMac overwrites the data three times. Just be sure you really want to delete the data forever cause when it's gone, it's really gone.

CleanMyMac is even smart enough to determine if you're on an Intel-based Mac. If you are, you can remove the Universal Binaries that provide support for PowerPC systems.

My main complaint with CleanMyMac is that I had a devil of a time getting it to accept the activation code I received via email. That said, it's definitely worth springing for the US$29.95 lifetime license -- though you can get a six-month license for $14.95.

Rating: 9 out of 10

-- Dennis Sellers