Windows System Cleaner and Optimizer 🧹

A registry-driven Windows cleanup engine. Every operation is one declarative task; a small engine resolves what to run, reclaims disk space, and deletes through PowerShell's ShouldProcess — so -WhatIf is real, not a parallel code path.

It cleans 63 targets across browsers, developer tools, apps, games, system caches, every local disk, logs, Windows Update, and driver leftovers — all from one declarative registry with a real dry-run mode and a hard safety guard. A companion optimization engine applies 49 reversible system tweaks, a troubleshooting engine scans for 25 common problems and repairs them, and a single menu ties everything together.

A free, open-source Windows 10 and Windows 11 cleaner, debloater, and optimizer, written in PowerShell — reclaim disk space, remove bloatware, harden privacy and telemetry, tune performance, and diagnose common system problems, with a real dry-run and a System Restore safety net. Works on desktops, laptops, and Windows Server, and runs unattended for fleets.

Contents

• The menu — one command
• Highlights
• Quick start
• Parameters
• Risk tiers
• What gets cleaned
• Optimization
• Troubleshooting engine
• Batch version
• Automation (GPO / SCCM / Intune)
• Tests
• Common issues (FAQ)
• License

One command — the menu

WinSenior.ps1 is the single entry point. Run it (it self-elevates) and an interactive menu opens with detailed screens for cleanup, optimization, troubleshooting, undo, a restore point and a task/tweak/check listing. It drives all three engines, so every action keeps real -WhatIf, the safety guard and per-tweak undo.

The menu is arrow-key driven: ↑/↓ move the highlight, Enter selects, Space toggles a task/tweak on the detailed screens, and Esc goes back. Add -Plain for terminals that can't render box-drawing characters (ASCII + - | borders instead).

.\WinSenior.ps1
.\WinSenior.ps1 -Plain   # ASCII-only borders

Highlights

• One source of truth. Every cleanup target is a single entry in a task registry (-ListTasks prints it). Adding a target is one line; nothing else to wire up.
• Real -WhatIf / -DryRun. Implemented through SupportsShouldProcess. Preview shows exactly what would be removed and reports honest would-free totals.
• Real restore point. Checkpoint-Computer actually creates a System Restore point (and clears the 24-hour throttle first) — non-interactive, safe for automation.
• Honest accounting. Reclaimed bytes are summed from items that were actually removed, not estimated and not counted from log lines.
• A safety guard that can't be argued with. Test-SafeToDelete refuses to operate on drive roots, %WINDIR%, %USERPROFILE%, C:\Users, System32, or any path shallower than two levels — defends against a bad registry entry or an unexpanded variable.
• Risk tiers. Safe / Moderate / Aggressive run by default; irreversible operations live in a Dangerous tier behind -IncludeDangerous.
• ~15 parameters with short aliases, plus per-user (<USER>) and per-disk (<DRIVE>) path expansion.

Quick start

# Preview everything (no changes, real ShouldProcess)
.\Cleanup-Windows-Senior.ps1 -WhatIf

# Default aggressive cleanup, all users, with a real restore point first
.\Cleanup-Windows-Senior.ps1

# Just browser + developer-tool caches
.\Cleanup-Windows-Senior.ps1 -Category Browsers,DevTools

# Clean drive-level junk on specific local disks only
.\Cleanup-Windows-Senior.ps1 -Category Disks -Drives C,D

# Non-interactive for scheduled tasks / GPO / SCCM / Intune
.\Cleanup-Windows-Senior.ps1 -Unattended -NoRestorePoint -SkipOptimization

# Everything, including the irreversible tier, with a JSON report
.\Cleanup-Windows-Senior.ps1 -IncludeDangerous -ReportPath C:\Logs\clean.json

# One-time execution-policy bypass
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Cleanup-Windows-Senior.ps1 -WhatIf

Run as Administrator. PowerShell 5.1+ (7+ recommended).

Parameters

Parameter	Alias	Effect
-Category <names>		Limit to: Browsers, DevTools, Apps, Games, System, Disks, Logs, Updates, Optimization
-Include <ids>		Force tasks on (ids from -ListTasks) — overrides category and risk cap
-Exclude <ids>		Force tasks off — wins over everything
-IncludeDangerous		Also run the irreversible tier (event logs, patch cache, Windows.old, old drivers)
-Conservative	-SafeMode	Cap at Safe + Moderate (skip Aggressive)
-CurrentUserOnly	-cu	Clean only the current profile (default: all users)
-Drives <letters>		Local disks for drive-level cleanup, e.g. -Drives C,D (default: all local disks)
-WhatIf / -DryRun	-dr	Preview only, change nothing
-Unattended	-Force, -f	No prompts, no GUI — for automation
-NoRestorePoint	-nrp	Skip the restore point that is otherwise created first
-SkipOptimization	-so	Skip the slow SFC / DISM category
-MaxAgeDays <n>		Only delete files older than n days
-LogPath <path>		Text log (default %TEMP%\WindowsCleanup.log)
-ReportPath <path>		Write a machine-readable JSON report
-ListTasks		Print the task registry and exit
-Help		Show usage

Risk tiers

Tier	Runs by default?	Examples
Safe	yes	browser caches, temp, thumbnails, dev/app/messenger caches, shader cache
Moderate	yes	recycle bin, crash dumps, font cache, WU download cache, DISM cleanup
Aggressive	yes	full SoftwareDistribution reset, prefetch, DISM /ResetBase, SFC
Dangerous	only with -IncludeDangerous	clear event logs, $PatchCache$, Windows.old, remove superseded drivers

-Conservative lowers the default ceiling to Moderate. -Include can force any single task on regardless of tier.

What gets cleaned

-ListTasks shows the live list. Categories:

• Browsers — Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Yandex, Brave (all profiles, cache / code cache / GPU cache / service-worker cache).
• DevTools — npm, pip, Yarn, NuGet http cache, Gradle, VS Code, JetBrains (caches/logs/temp), Nuitka build cache, Go build cache, Dart/Flutter Pub cache, package-manager caches (winget, Chocolatey, Scoop, conda, cargo, Go module cache), pnpm store prune, and docker system prune (each skipped if the tool isn't installed).
• Apps — Windows app/UWP caches, Microsoft Teams (classic + new), Discord, Slack, Spotify, Office document/web cache, OneDrive logs, Adobe media & Camera Raw cache.
• Games — launcher caches for Steam (shader/http/html), Epic, Battle.net, GOG.
• System — user/Windows temp, WinINet cache, thumbnail & icon cache, GPU/D3D shader cache, GPU driver installer leftovers (NVIDIA/AMD), WebCache, Delivery Optimization, recent items, font cache, Windows logs, prefetch, and removal of superseded driver packages via pnputil (Dangerous; boot-critical and in-use drivers are never touched).
• Logs additions — setup logs (Panther/setupapi) and Defender scan history.
• Disks — drive-level cleanup across every local disk (C:, D:, E: …): per-drive Temp/tmp scratch folders and CHKDSK FOUND.* fragments. Recycle Bins on all drives are emptied by the Logs task. Restrict with -Drives C,D.
• Logs — Windows Error Reporting, crash & memory dumps, old IIS logs (>14 days), Recycle Bin (all drives), event-log clearing (Dangerous).
• Updates — Windows Update download cache (services stopped correctly), full SoftwareDistribution reset, patch cache (Dangerous), Windows.old & upgrade leftovers (Dangerous).
• Optimization — DISM analyze / component cleanup / reset base, StartComponentCleanup task, SFC. Skipped entirely with -SkipOptimization.

Optimization

Optimize-Windows-Senior.ps1 is a second registry-driven engine that changes Windows settings instead of deleting files. Every tweak is one declarative entry; the engine snapshots prior state into a backup manifest before applying, so -Undo reverts an entire run. A real restore point is created first as a second safety net.

# Preview every tweak (no changes, real ShouldProcess)
.\Optimize-Windows-Senior.ps1 -WhatIf

# Apply the default privacy + performance set
.\Optimize-Windows-Senior.ps1 -Area Privacy,Performance

# Revert the most recent run
.\Optimize-Windows-Senior.ps1 -Undo

It covers 49 tweaks across four areas (including modern Windows 11 items — Recall/Copilot, tailored-ads and Spotlight, inking/typing & speech telemetry, and the taskbar/Start ad surfaces):

• Performance — visual effects to best performance, zero menu/startup delay, High-Performance power plan, background apps off; (off by default) Ultimate plan, SysMain / Windows Search off, hibernation off.
• Privacy — telemetry policy, advertising ID, consumer features, tips/spotlight, activity feed, Start web search and Cortana off; DiagTrack and dmwappushservice disabled; CEIP / telemetry scheduled tasks off.
• Debloat — curated junk UWP removal (default on); Xbox and comms apps (off by default); Start-menu app suggestions off.
• Network — GameDVR off, Game Mode on, network-throttling and multimedia reservation off; (off by default) Nagle off, NDU service off.

Debatable tweaks ship off by default — allowed by their tier but only applied when you toggle them on or -Include them. The engine never disables Defender real-time protection, never breaks Windows Update or the network stack wholesale, and never removes Edge or the Store. Removing UWP apps is partially irreversible; the manifest lists what to reinstall from the Store. -ListTweaks prints the live list, and -Undo reverts a run from its backup manifest (newest in %ProgramData%\WinSenior\backups, or a specific one with -BackupManifest).

Troubleshooting

Repair-Windows-Senior.ps1 is a third engine that diagnoses and repairs system health. Every check is one declarative entry: a read-only scan that returns OK / Warn / Fail, and an optional fix. The default flow is scan-then-choose — it scans (changing nothing), prints a health report, and lets you pick which detected issues to repair. Fixes run through ShouldProcess after a real restore point.

# Scan, show the report, then choose what to repair
.\Repair-Windows-Senior.ps1

# Diagnose only - never change anything
.\Repair-Windows-Senior.ps1 -ScanOnly

# Non-interactive: auto-apply every fixable issue, including heavy repairs
.\Repair-Windows-Senior.ps1 -FixAll -IncludeHeavy -Unattended

It runs 25 checks across eight categories — including security checks (firewall state, SMBv1, hosts-file and proxy/PAC hijack, Defender signatures), a System Restore safety-net check, print spooler / BITS / Store health, and predictive SSD wear & crash-history reporting, plus the originals: system image health (DISM), physical disk SMART health, low free space, volumes flagged for chkdsk, pending reboot, Windows Update components, internet & DNS, devices with driver errors, stopped critical services, Microsoft Defender health, WMI repository consistency, time synchronization, and recent critical/error events.

Heavy repairs (SFC, DISM RestoreHealth, Windows Update reset, network stack reset) are included but only run when you select them, or pass -FixAll -IncludeHeavy. Repairs only ever improve health — the engine enables Defender real-time protection, it never disables it. -ListChecks prints the live list.

Batch version

Cleanup-Windows-Senior.bat is the simple, dependency-free alternative. v6 brings it to parity with the engine's defaults and fixes the old bugs (each browser flag is now independent; real all-users iteration; Windows Update services stopped in the right order). The Dangerous tier is behind /IncludeDangerous; a real restore point is opt-in via /RestorePoint. Run Cleanup-Windows-Senior.bat /? for options. The PowerShell version is recommended — it has real -WhatIf, finer control, and the safety guard.

Cleanup-Windows-Senior.bat /DryRun
Cleanup-Windows-Senior.bat /CurrentUserOnly /nch /nff
Cleanup-Windows-Senior.bat /IncludeDangerous /RestorePoint

Automation (GPO / SCCM / Intune / Task Scheduler)

The -Unattended switch makes the run fully non-interactive (no prompts, no GUI) — the restore point is created programmatically with Checkpoint-Computer, so nothing blocks.

# Startup script / scheduled task
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -WindowStyle Hidden `
  -File "C:\Scripts\Cleanup-Windows-Senior.ps1" -Unattended -SkipOptimization `
  -LogPath "C:\Logs\cleanup.log" -ReportPath "C:\Logs\cleanup.json"

Exit codes: 0 success, 2 administrator privileges required.

Recurring maintenance — one command

WinSenior.ps1 can register the recurring tasks for you (run as Administrator; it self-elevates):

.\WinSenior.ps1 -InstallSchedule   # register the maintenance tasks
.\WinSenior.ps1 -RemoveSchedule    # remove them

This creates two Task Scheduler jobs under \WinSenior\, running as SYSTEM:

Task	When	What
WinSenior Weekly Cleanup	Weekly, Sun 03:00	unattended cleanup, no restore point, skips slow SFC/DISM
WinSenior Monthly Health Scan	Monthly, 1st 03:30	read-only health scan (changes nothing)

Both write JSON reports to %ProgramData%\WinSenior\reports.

Report format

Every engine's -ReportPath writes the same envelope, so one parser reads them all:

{
  "Tool": "WinSenior", "Version": "6.1.0", "Engine": "Cleanup",
  "Host": "PC01", "Timestamp": "2026-06-24T03:00:11", "Mode": "Live",
  "RestorePoint": true, "DurationSec": 42.3,
  "Summary": { "TotalFreed": "1.20 GB", "TotalFiles": 8123, "TotalErrors": 2 },
  "Items": [ /* per-task / per-tweak / per-check detail */ ]
}

Summary holds the engine's counters (cleanup: freed bytes/files; optimize: applied/skipped; repair: fixed/reboot), and Items the per-unit breakdown.

Tests

The tests\*.Tests.ps1 files cover the pure logic of all three engines — selection, the safety guard, age filtering, formatting, -WhatIf accounting, a registry backup→apply→undo round-trip against a throwaway hive, and the troubleshooter's scan/fix dispatch. Requires Pester 5+:

Invoke-Pester -Path .\tests

Common issues (FAQ)

• "running scripts is disabled" — powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ... or Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned.
• Restore point not created — System Protection is off for the system drive. Enable it (Enable-ComputerRestore -Drive "C:\") or run with -NoRestorePoint.
• Some items report errors — they were locked/in use (e.g. an open browser). Close the app and re-run; the engine counts these and continues.
• Nothing happens — check you ran as Administrator (exit code 2 otherwise).

License

MIT © 2026 denfry. See LICENSE.

Author

denfry — github.com/denfry

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🔒 Safety note

This tool deletes files and, in the Dangerous tier, makes irreversible changes. Always start with -WhatIf. Keep the default restore point on for important systems. The authors are not responsible for data loss from improper use — ensure you have backups.