Filtering Items During the Scan
Use the Preferences Scanning dialog to control some of the criteria that determine which files and folders will be ignored.
Filtering by Finder Labels
Some items in the Preferences folder will appear to be unused even though you know this is not the case. To tell File Buddy to ignore such items in scans of the Preferences folder, assign a Finder label of your choice to those items that should be ignored. |
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Use the Check all items in the Preferences folder radio button to configure a scan of the Preferences folder to check all items in the Preferences folder. |
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Use the Check items with these Finder labels: and the desired label checkboxes to specify which labels should be ignored during a scan. |
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Since items in the Preferences folder are generally created without a Finder label, having a label is a good sign the label was assigned by the user after the item was created. (For instance, it's a good practice is to assign a designated label to all items in the System folder immediately after a clean install of the system software. This makes it easy to identify items belonging to the system after other items are added to the system folder.) |
Ignoring Recently Accessed Items in Mac OS X
If a file or folder has been accessed recently, that's an excellent indication it is used by something. This is the best mechanism for identifying unused preferences files in Mac OS X. |
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Use the pop-up menu in the window to specify how long an item can go without being accessed before it's reported as unused. |
Ignoring Recently Modified Items in Mac OS 9
Accessed dates are not set in Mac OS 9, but if a file or folder has been modified recently, that's also a good indication it is used by something. |
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Use the pop-up menu in the window to specify how long an item can go without being modified before it's reported as unused if no application can be identified as owning the creator signature of the file. |
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