MacPilot Review: System Tweaks for Apple Geeks

If you haven’t already picked up the MacUpdate Holiday bundle for this season, you may want to give it some more consideration, especially if you’re a fan of customization. MacPilot 3.2, a new version of the robust system tweak and maintenance application from Koingo Software, is here to solve all your winter maintenance woes.

Consider the following: you’re a competent Mac user, but you take Terminal’s name literally and you wish there were an easier way to tweak your Mac experience to be just the way you need it to be. MacPilot steps in to offer you a surprising number of system customization options, along the same lines as Cocktail, TinkerTool and Onyx — except better, according to the installation notes.

In practice, it turns out that the claim may not be far off. MacPilot boasts an intuitive interface that brings what you need to see into a single window instead of forcing you to wade through too many tabs to find your way to the setting you’d like to tweak. At launch, MacPilot opens with its General panel open to you, allowing you to scroll to find the app you need to tweak and access all of the possible modifications for it.

And make no mistake, there are a lot of options. You can find a list of them on their Features page, but some of our favourites are the ability to easily show/hide hidden files, add spacers and stacks to my dock, specify default fonts system-wide, change the desktop picture (and welcome text) for the login screen…the list literally just keeps going and you’ll likely find yourself discovering neat new tweaks that improve your user experience as you explore the app.

MacPilot is a very conscientious tweaker though; it won’t let you change any settings if the app in question is running, offering the explanation that applying changes on the fly might cause instability or not remain permanent. It thoughtfully gives you the option to exit and restart the app while the change is being made to ensure you don’t run into any problems. And if you’re not sure what a certain change does, the little yellow ribbon at the bottom of the window tells you specifically what will happen if you play with the setting.

There’s more to this app than just tweaking system settings though, it also offers a set of useful tools for running routine maintenance operations on your system. From basic disc verification and permissions checks, to User Cache and Icon clearing and verification of preference file integrity, MacPilot has you covered for basic system management needs. To access all of the added goodies, simply find the panel at the top that refers to the area of your system that you want to perform maintenance on, and MacPilot will give you quick access to all the options available.

Strangely though, the “safety” warnings and helpful explanation bars that make the tweaks in the General panel so accessible to standard users are absent from the other panels in MacPilot. This means that one could theoretically disable or even remove some fairly important system items by accident. Thankfully, the most important maintenance tasks require Administrator access to engage.

Many users may also wonder why there’s a $19.95 price tag on an app that has so many free competitors. There’s no easy answer to the question, except to say that MacPilot melds system tweaking capabilities with routine maintenance ones into a single package. So, although you can do all of these things with a series of freeware alternatives, if you’re looking to do it all in one stable, safe, and accessible place, then you can’t go wrong with MacPilot.

MacPilot is available from Koingo Software for $19.95.

Disclaimer: Our sponsor, MacUpdate, is currently offering a Promo Holiday Bundle that includes MacPilot and 9 other great Mac apps for only $49.99. This review was written without any influence from MacUpdate or the developer. If you would like to purchase the bundle, click here.

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