PC Cleaner

A Windows cleanup utility with guarded system cleanup, reusable presets, and a fully mocked test suite.

Features

• Cleans Windows, browser, application, development-tool, launcher, and graphics caches.
• Removes JetBrains AF_UNIX socket reparse points without following links; protected directory junctions are skipped silently.
• Empties Recycle Bins on all drives through the Windows Shell API.
• Flushes the DNS resolver cache.
• Saves the last yes/no cleanup choices in %APPDATA%\PC_CLEANER\preset.json and offers to reuse them at the next launch.
• Requires confirmation for cleanup that removes diagnostics, triggers large downloads/rebuilds, or has another meaningful side effect.

Download

Download the latest .exe from Releases and run it—no Python installation is required.

Cleanup order

Targets are presented in the following order. Dynamic Firefox and JetBrains entries are added only when matching profile/product directories exist; their prompts include the profile or product directory name.

Windows and system

Directory	Path	Confirmation
System Temp	%SystemRoot%\Temp	No
Delivery Optimization	%SystemRoot%\SoftwareDistribution\DeliveryOptimization	No
Windows Updates	%SystemRoot%\SoftwareDistribution\Download	Yes
Windows Logs	%SystemRoot%\Logs	Yes
Event Logs	%SystemRoot%\System32\winevt\Logs	Yes
Prefetch	%SystemRoot%\Prefetch	Yes
Live Kernel Reports	%SystemRoot%\LiveKernelReports	Yes
Windows.old	%SystemDrive%\Windows.old	Yes
Recycle Bin	All drives	Yes

User temporary files and diagnostics

Directory	Path	Confirmation
User Temp	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp	No
User Temp (LocalLow)	%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Temp	No
User Cache	%USERPROFILE%\.cache	Yes
Thumbnail Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer	No
Internet Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache	No
Windows WebCache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache	No
Microsoft Store Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache	No
Crash Dumps	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps	Yes
Windows Error Reporting	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WER	Yes
System Error Reporting	%PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WER	Yes

Browsers

Directory	Path	Confirmation
Edge Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Cache	Yes
Edge Code Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Code Cache	Yes
Edge GPU Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\GPUCache	Yes
Edge Service Worker Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Service Worker\CacheStorage	Yes
Chrome Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache	Yes
Chrome Code Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Code Cache	Yes
Chrome GPU Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\GPUCache	Yes
Chrome Service Worker Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Service Worker\CacheStorage	Yes
Brave Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Cache	Yes
Opera Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Opera Software\Opera Stable\Cache	Yes
Firefox Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\cache2	Yes

Development tools

Directory	Path	Confirmation
Pytest Cache	%USERPROFILE%\.pytest_cache	No
Ruff Cache	%USERPROFILE%\.cache\ruff	No
Mypy Cache	%USERPROFILE%\.mypy_cache	No
pip Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\pip\cache	No
uv Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\uv\cache	No
Poetry Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\pypoetry\Cache	No
npm Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\npm-cache	No
Yarn Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Yarn\Cache	No
pnpm Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\pnpm-cache	No
Corepack Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\node\corepack	No
Bun Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\bun\install\cache	No
NuGet HTTP Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\NuGet\v3-cache	No
NuGet Plugins Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\NuGet\plugins-cache	No
Go Build Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\go-build	Yes
Cargo Registry Cache	%USERPROFILE%\.cargo\registry\cache	Yes
Gradle Cache	%USERPROFILE%\.gradle\caches	Yes
Gradle Temp	%USERPROFILE%\.gradle\.tmp	Yes
Visual Studio Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\VisualStudio	Yes
VS Code Cache	%APPDATA%\Code\Cache	No
VS Code Cached Data	%APPDATA%\Code\CachedData	No
VS Code Logs	%APPDATA%\Code\logs	No
JetBrains Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\JetBrains\*\caches	Yes
JetBrains Logs	%LOCALAPPDATA%\JetBrains\*\log	No

Communication and media applications

Directory	Path	Confirmation
Discord Cache	%APPDATA%\discord\Cache	Yes
Discord Code Cache	%APPDATA%\discord\Code Cache	Yes
Teams Cache	%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Teams\Cache	Yes
Slack Cache	%APPDATA%\Slack\Cache	Yes
Zoom Cache	%APPDATA%\Zoom\data	Yes
Spotify Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Spotify\Data	Yes
Adobe Media Cache	%APPDATA%\Adobe\Common\Media Cache Files	Yes

Game launchers

Directory	Path	Confirmation
Steam HTML Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Steam\htmlcache	Yes
Steam Shader Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Steam\shadercache	Yes
Epic Games Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\EpicGamesLauncher\Saved\webcache	Yes
Battle.net Cache	%PROGRAMDATA%\Battle.net\Cache	Yes

Graphics

Directory	Path	Confirmation
Direct3D Shader Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\D3DSCache	Yes
NVIDIA GL Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\GLCache	Yes
NVIDIA DX Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\DXCache	Yes
Intel Shader Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Intel\ShaderCache	Yes
AMD DX Cache	%LOCALAPPDATA%\AMD\DxCache	Yes

Development

Requirements: Python 3.8+ for the application and Python 3.10+ for the test toolchain.

git clone https://github.com/gnilobaiter/pc_cleaner
cd pc_cleaner
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

Checks and build

Everything runs through make in a local .venv:

make          # Ruff, format check, Vulture, pytest (95% coverage gate), then the build
make lint     # Ruff + Vulture only
make test     # pytest with the coverage gate
make build    # checks first, then PyInstaller; never builds when a check fails
make clean    # remove build artifacts and caches

The executable is created at dist\PC_CLEANER.exe. The cleanup list lives in src/cleanup_targets.json (path templates with %VAR% placeholders, optional * for per-profile folders) and is bundled into the exe with --add-data.

All destructive filesystem deletion, Recycle Bin, DNS, input, preset, and CLI effects are isolated or mocked.