iStat Menus: Give Your Mac a Checkup

Have you ever had to dig for information regarding your system’s performance and ultimately get frustrated when you can’t find out how much RAM you are using or how full your hard drive is? Not anymore! iStat Menus, made by iSlayer, facilitates in finding system information quickly. With eight separate and highly configurable menu items, iStat menus will let you know exactly what’s going on inside your Mac right from your menu bar.

iStat operates directly from the System Preferences and it is very easy to customize; you can have exactly what information, color, order, and even what type of graph is displayed. iStat’s preferences  have eleven different tabs including General, CPU, Memory, Drives, Network, Temps, Fans & Power, Bluetooth, Date & Time, Help, and Donate. iStat also has a convenient uninstall button, so that you don’t have to dig for the files associated with it to wipe it from your hard drive if you decide not to keep it.

The best part of iStat is the customization feature. You can change the graph (History Graph, Vertical, Percentage, Used/Free, etc.), color, update time, opacity, label, skin, and more. Personally, I have my hard drive set as Used/Free, my Memory as a percentage. My Date & Time as the day, month, and time, and my CPU usage as a history graph.

iStat places your information cleanly in the menu bar for easy access and it is out of the way and not taking up screen real estate.

iStat is Donationware, meaning that it is free, but there is the Donate tab at the bottom.  The first time you open the program, you are asked if you want to donate. iSlayer also makes an iPhone app for this application which monitors your Mac from wherever you are. The iPhone app is available in the App Store for $1.99 for a limited time and is normally $2.99. I have not used the app myself, but it’s sleek and based on the reviews in the iTunes App Store, it is great despite one bug. iStat requires Mac OS 10.4 or higher, so all of you Tiger users can keep your Mac up to date as well.