Questions worth answering

Scanning is strictly read-only and never changes anything on disk. When you do clean, deletions go to the Recycle Bin on Windows or the FreeDesktop Trash on Linux by default, so a wrong choice is a restore rather than a recovery.

A central protected paths layer keeps operating system files, user document roots, .git repositories, SSH keys, browser credentials and game saves out of reach of every cleanup path, and the rules are covered by the test suite.

Because registry cleaning has no measurable benefit and carries real risk. Removing orphaned keys does not make Windows faster, and a wrong removal can break an application or a boot. CrapCleaner does not clean, optimise, defragment or repair the registry, and the feature is not planned.

Temporary files, build caches, package manager download stores, browser HTTP and GPU caches, shader caches and log files. In other words, data the system or the application regenerates on demand.

Every category tells you what it contains, why it grows, why removing it is safe and what gets regenerated. The preview lists every candidate file with its size before you confirm anything.

No. User document roots are protected at the safety layer, and no cleanup category targets personal files. The duplicate finder and large file finder can report files anywhere you point them, but reporting is all they do: removal is always your explicit choice, file by file.

Open the Recycle Bin on Windows or the Trash on Linux and restore it, the same as any other deletion. This is why reversible deletion is the default rather than an option you have to find.

Not for most of what it does. CrapCleaner runs as a normal user, and the categories that need elevation are labelled so you can see them before you commit.

On Windows, elevation applies to the whole process through UAC. On Linux, individual commands are elevated through pkexec, so the application never runs as root. If neither pkexec nor a non-interactive sudo is available, the action is refused with an explanation rather than hanging on a hidden password prompt.

No. There is no tracking, no analytics, no advertising and no telemetry. Everything runs locally, and your settings are stored in a plain configuration file on your own machine.

It frees disk space, which matters when a drive is nearly full. It does not claim to improve frame rates or boot times, and it does not pretend that freeing RAM speeds up a system that already manages memory automatically. Where a limitation exists, the interface says so rather than showing a reassuring animation.

It is one application that adapts to the system it runs on, not a Windows application with Linux bolted on. Startup entries come from XDG autostart, services are systemd units driven through systemctl, updates come from apt, dnf, pacman or zypper, and deletions go to the FreeDesktop Trash.

Features the system cannot provide are hidden rather than shown broken. On a machine without systemd, the services page does not appear at all.

The Windows binary is not code-signed, so SmartScreen shows a warning for an executable it has not seen before. Code signing certificates carry an ongoing cost that this project does not take in.

Every release ships a checksums.txt file, so you can verify the download matches the published build, and the full source and build workflow are public.

It is free and open source under the MIT License. There is no paid tier, no trial, no upsell and no bundled software.

Yes. Every feature has a command line equivalent and every command accepts --json. Cleanups are a dry run unless you pass --execute, and reports export to JSON, CSV or plain text.

Open an issue on the tracker. The help dialog inside the application has a one click Copy System Diagnostics button that gathers the details worth attaching. For a suspected security or data-loss issue, follow the security policy instead of opening a public issue.