CrapCleaner v1.0.11

Windows and Linux · MIT licensed

Reclaim disk space you can account for.

CrapCleaner finds temporary files, developer build caches, package manager stores and browser caches, tells you what each one contains and why removing it is safe, then sends it to the Recycle Bin instead of deleting it outright.

Download 1.0.11 View the source

No telemetry. Nothing leaves your machine. No registry cleaning. Not now, not ever.

CrapCleaner 1.0.11 · Dashboard
The CrapCleaner dashboard showing 21.0 GB of reclaimable space, live memory, processor, graphics and network readings, and a card for each detected drive.
The dashboard after a scan: total reclaimable space, live system vitals, and every drive it found.

How it works

Find it, understand it, then remove it

Most cleaners ask you to trust a progress bar. CrapCleaner shows the reasoning behind every category before you delete anything.

01

Scan

More than 75 cleanup targets covering Windows system files, developer tools, package managers, game launchers and browsers. Each one reports its item count and size before you decide.

02

Inspect

Select any category and it tells you what it contains, why it grows, why removing it is safe, and what the system will regenerate afterwards. The preview lists every candidate file with its size and safety level.

03

Clean

Deletions go to the Windows Recycle Bin or the FreeDesktop Trash by default, so a mistake is a restore rather than a recovery. Every run is written to a local audit log.

Safety

The rules the application holds itself to

These are design constraints in the codebase, not marketing promises. They are enforced by a central protection layer and covered by the test suite.

  1. 01

    Only technically defensible cleanups

    Every target has a documented reason for existing and a documented reason why deleting it is safe.

  2. 02

    No registry cleaning of any kind

    CrapCleaner does not clean, optimise, defragment or repair the Windows registry. There is no measurable benefit and there is real risk, so the feature does not exist.

  3. 03

    A central protected paths layer

    Hard-coded rules keep operating system files, user document roots, .git repositories, SSH keys, browser credentials and game saves out of reach of every cleanup path.

  4. 04

    Links are never followed

    Scanning, preview and cleanup all detach symlinks and Windows directory junctions rather than descending through them. Deleting a tree removes the link and leaves its target untouched.

  5. 05

    Reversible by default

    Deletions are sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows or the FreeDesktop Trash on Linux unless you explicitly choose otherwise.

  6. 06

    No telemetry

    No tracking, analytics, advertising or network reporting. The application runs entirely on the local machine.

Safety tiers

Every category is graded before you see it

Safe categories are pre-selected. Dangerous ones are never selected automatically and are reported read-only.

Tier Meaning Examples
Safe Temporary files the system regenerates on its own. User and system TEMP, crash dumps, pip and uv caches
Low risk Caches that are rebuilt on demand. Removing them costs a slower first run, nothing else. Browser HTTP and GPU caches, shader caches, launcher caches
Review Items that are safe in most cases but need a deliberate decision from you. Windows.old, Recycle Bin contents, Docker prune
Dangerous Never selected automatically and never cleaned. Reported read-only so you can see the size. AI model weights, operating system recovery data

Interface

A desktop application, not a web page in a window

Built with PySide6. Keyboard navigable, resizable, and themed with 43 built-in palettes plus a custom theme studio with live multi-tab preview and WCAG contrast validation.

Dashboard showing reclaimable space, live system vitals and drive cards.
Reclaimable space, live vitals with rolling history, and every mounted drive.

Platform support

One application that adapts to the system it runs on

Shared features use each platform's own tooling and vocabulary. A feature whose tooling is missing is hidden rather than shown broken.

Feature Windows Linux
Cleanup, storage breakdown, duplicates, large files Yes Yes
Startup applications Registry Run keys, Startup folders, Task Manager flags XDG autostart entries
Services Windows services via CIM, with an sc.exe fallback systemd system and user units via systemctl
System updates Windows Update COM API and hotfix history apt, dnf, pacman or zypper
Application updates winget, chocolatey apt, flatpak, snap, pacman, dnf
Reversible deletion Windows Recycle Bin FreeDesktop Trash
Privilege escalation UAC, for the whole process pkexec, per command, so it never runs as root

Run crapcleaner --capabilities to see exactly what the current system reports.

Command line

Everything the interface does, scriptable

Every command accepts --json. Cleanups are a dry run unless you pass --execute. 

# See what could be reclaimed
crapcleaner --scan

# Machine-readable output
crapcleaner --scan --json

# Show the manifest before deleting anything
crapcleaner --cleanup-preview

# Clean the safe tier, for real
crapcleaner --clean-safe --execute
# Where the space actually went
crapcleaner --storage ~/

# Drive health and TRIM status
crapcleaner --disk-health

# Find duplicates over 10 MB
crapcleaner --duplicates ~/Downloads \
    --min-dup-size 10MB

# Export a report
crapcleaner --scan --export csv --output scan.csv

Download CrapCleaner 1.0.11

A single portable executable for Windows or Linux, with no installer and no runtime to set up. Or clone the repository and run it from source.

Download options Read the FAQ