Hi everyone, I have been a Windows user for quite some time and recently switched to a Mac. On my Windows machine, I have always used Disk Cleanup to remove temporary internet files, hibernation files etc... from the hard drive. I have done some search and there are many threads recommending different third party apps, but I would like to know if there is anything within the OSX that performs the same function
Welcome to hassle-free Mac ownership! You can remove temporary internet files from within the browser. You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.
These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.
Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.
Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.