Automate Trash Management with Compost

5:00 PM EDT, Sep. 6th, 2007 · by Jeff Gamet · Tips

Drag file to Trash, empty Trash. Drag file to Trash, empty Trash. How about drag file to Trash, let your Mac manage everything from there?

Once clever utility that helps your Mac take control over your Trash is Compost. Once installed, you can set how often files in your Trash are deleted, the maximum amount of hard drive space Trash can use, how much free space you want on your hard drive, and more.

Compost includes its own Preference Pane. I used it to set my Trash to delete files after one day, limit its maximum capacity to 1024MB, try to maintain 20 percent free space on my hard drive, delete locked items, and immediately delete empty folders.

Use Compost to control how often your Trash empties.

These settings come fairly close to my normal Trash habits, so now I donit have to spend extra time managing the items I plan on deleting. Drag files to Trash, let my Mac manage everything from there.

Compost is available for download at the Fastforward Software Web site. You can use it for free, but for US$12.95, it unlocks additional features including the ability to securely delete files.