Mac OS X can be extended and customized in many ways by adding various components like fonts, screen savers, contextual menu modules, preference panes, QuickTime components... and many others. Those components, known as plug-ins or add-ons, are simple files stored at specific locations on your disk.

The same principle existed in Mac OS 9 and it was rather simple. All files were stored in a few subfolders of the system folder and Mac OS 9's Finder was even able to automatically dispatch them to the appropriate locations.

Mac OS X's organization has become cleaner, but also much more complicated. Plenty of folders are dedicated to those files, and most of the time, multiple locations are available for a given kind of plug-in. Moreover, Finder's dispatch functionality has gone and Mac OS X really provides no help: the users have to know the numerous locations and have to figure them out by themselves.

But the users often don't know and don't want to care about these details. They ask for something as simple as possible, and, in an easy to use environment, they shouldn't have to know. Alfred aims at addressing this problem and bring simplicity back again.

Alfred is an easy to use, customizable, universal plug-ins manager. Inspired from Mac OS 9's Finder and Extensions Manager, taking care of Mac OS X specificities, it covers every aspect of plug-in management and improves the overall user experience to install, remove and manipulate any kind of plug-in (system ones as well as applications ones).

Alfred hides the unintuitive disk organization and provides a dedicated user interface. Taking advantage of its built-in configuration, it can natively handle of the most common plug-ins. But it may also be customized so that missing and future needs can be covered too, allowing advanced users to efficiently tidy all of their files.

Alfred is the companion of any user who doesn't want to waste time.

• Easy plug-in installation, management and removal.
• Dedicated user interface cataloging installed plug-ins.
• File inspectors with preview.
• Generic engine using customizable rules.
• One-click plug-in installation using the contextual menu module from the Finder.

Alfred is currently available in the following languages:

• English
• French
• Japanese (thanks to RedGecko)

Alfred requires any computer running Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) or later.

If you have troubles using Alfred, please visit the support page.

Alfred is a shareware. You can freely download, install and use it during a couple of weeks for evaluation purposes. If you plan to keep it beyond this period, you must purchase a license. You will then receive a personal registration key which will unlock all features. You will get:

• Unrestricted rules. When unregistered, Alfred randomly disables a part of the rules. You won't be allowed to use these rules to install or manage files.
• Removal of the reminders.
• Free upgrades.
• Standard e-mail technical support.

Alfred can be purchased here. This page contains further information regarding the available licenses and services, and guides you through the registration process.

By using this software, you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions. If you do not agree to be bound by all the terms and conditions, do not use the software.

No warranty. The product is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. You agree to use this software at your own risks. Under no circumstances shall the authors be liable for any damage resulting from the use, misuse, or inability to use the software.

Piracy. You understand that the license information for this product is private. You agree not to disclose your license information to anyone and to take reasonable precautions to prevent the disclosure of your license information. The authors retain the right to disable the registration keys. You also understand that the software may perform various operations (including opening network connections) to prevent piracy.

Privacy. The authors are concerned about the respect of the privacy of the users and commit to never retrieve any personal information without the explicit authorization of the user and commit to never disclose or publish such information.

I would like to thank:

• Every user who supports Alfred.
• Wilfried de Denterghem for designing Alfred's icon and for his support during the development.
• Alfred's beta testing team.
• RedGecko for the Japanese localization.
• All people who sent feedback and suggestions.
• Various news web sites and magazines for their reviews.

Do you have any question, comment or suggestion about Alfred? Send an e-mail to alfred@daedale.com.