Reclaim gigabytes of disk space in one click — safely, transparently, and without the bloat.
Select what to clean → Analyze first → Run. That's the whole workflow.
Your PC quietly fills up with junk. Temp files, browser caches, update leftovers, old crash dumps, log files you'll never read — they pile up over months and eat 5 to 50+ GB of your drive without you ever noticing.
Most cleaners either:
- Are bloated with popups, upsells, and background services you didn't ask for
- Hide what they're doing so you never really know what got deleted
- Feel risky — will it delete something important? Will my PC still boot?
Windows Cache Cleaner does one thing, does it well, and shows you exactly what's happening the entire time.
- ✅ It's fully Open-Source! — so that you can have a look at exactly what's going on under the hood
- ✅ No ads, no upsells, no background services — just a tool that cleans and gets out of the way
- ✅ Every action is logged — see every file removed, every byte freed
- ✅ Analyze before you clean — preview the result before anything is touched
- ✅ Almost everything it deletes is gradually regenerated by Windows automatically
- Grab the latest
Windows Cache Cleaner.exefrom the Releases page - Right-click → Run as administrator (required — Windows won't let any tool clean system folders without it)
- Check the boxes for what you want to clean (or just hit Select All)
- Click Analyze 🔍 to see how much you'll free
- Click Run Cleanup 🚀
That's it. The first run typically frees several gigabytes.
Everything below is safe to remove. Windows and your apps will regenerate whatever they need.
| What | Typical Space | |
|---|---|---|
| 🗂️ | Temp Files — Windows & user temporary files | 1-10 GB |
| 🐍 | Dev Tool Caches — pip, conda, npm, Yarn | 500 MB - 10 GB |
| 🌐 | Browser Caches — Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Brave | 500 MB - 5 GB |
| 📦 | Windows Update leftovers — downloaded update files | 500 MB - 5 GB |
| 🎮 | GPU Shader Cache — NVIDIA & AMD shader compilations | 100 MB - 2 GB |
| 🏪 | Windows Store / UWP caches | 200 MB - 3 GB |
| 📸 | Icon & thumbnail caches | 50 MB - 500 MB |
| 💥 | Crash dumps — including full kernel dumps | 100 MB - 5 GB |
| 📝 | System logs — event and error logs | 100 MB - 2 GB |
| ⚙️ | WinSxS — component store cleanup (via DISM) | 2 GB - 20 GB |
| 🗑️ | Recycle Bin — on every drive | Variable |
| ...plus Prefetch, RDP cache, WebCache, upgrade logs, and more |
These are excluded from "Select All" and each has an extra confirmation dialog, because they remove more than just cached junk:
| Option | What you lose |
|---|---|
| Previous Windows Installation(s) | Can't roll back to your previous Windows version anymore |
| Windows ESD Installation Files | "Reset this PC" will need to re-download a Windows image |
| Device Driver Packages | A driver for temporarily-unplugged hardware may need re-downloading |
They're there for when you specifically want them — never applied by accident.
Yes — and here's why you can trust that:
- 🎯 Almost everything is a cache — Windows recreates it automatically the next time it's needed
- 🔍 You see everything first — the Analyze button gives you a full breakdown before anything is deleted
- 📋 Every operation is logged — a timestamped log file records every file removed, with a full summary at the end
- 🧠 Smart targeting — where a folder isn't purely cache, the tool uses surgical targeting (e.g. only the specific thumbnail cache files, or OneDrive's own supported reset command) rather than wiping the folder
- 🔓 Fully open source — every line of code is right here in this repo. Read it, build it yourself, modify it however you want
Some antivirus software may flag the .exe as suspicious. This is a false positive.
It happens with any executable that bundles a Python runtime — the packaging method resembles some malware packers, and the admin requirement triggers heuristics. Since the full source is public, you can verify exactly what the tool does. You can also just build the .exe yourself in a few minutes (see below).
- Non-blocking UI — nothing freezes, even during long operations like WinSxS cleanup
- Analyze Mode — see exactly what will be freed before you commit
- Live Progress — real-time status updates, file counts, and running totals
- Stop Anytime — cancel mid-operation and see what was completed
- Detailed Reports — files deleted, space freed, time taken, any errors
- Persistent Settings — your checkbox selections are remembered between runs
- Matches Your Theme — picks up your Windows accent color automatically
Prefer to compile from source rather than trust a downloaded .exe? It takes about a minute.
- Python 3.10 or newer
- These files in the same folder:
windows_cache_cleaner.py,windows_cache_cleaner.ico,build_exe.bat
- Double-click
build_exe.bat - Wait 2-5 minutes while it builds
- Your
Windows Cache Cleaner.exeappears in the same folder
The build script handles everything — checking Python, installing PyInstaller if needed, building, moving the finished .exe into place, and cleaning up all temporary build files afterward.
📖 Full details: see BUILD_INSTRUCTIONS.md
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| "Some files couldn't be deleted" | Normal — files currently in use by a running app get skipped. Close what you can and re-run. |
| WinSxS cleanup is taking forever | DISM is slow by design. 5-15 minutes is expected. Let it run. |
| Antivirus blocked the .exe | False positive — see the "Note About Antivirus" section above. |
| Windows Defender "unknown publisher" warning | Click "More info" → "Run anyway". The tool isn't code-signed (that costs money), but the source is public. |
- 🐛 Found a bug? Open an issue
- 💡 Have a suggestion? Start a discussion
- ⭐ Find it useful? Star the repo — it helps others find it too
Free for personal use. No selling. Keep it credited.
You can: use it, read the source, modify it, share it, learn from it
You can't: sell it, use it commercially without permission, claim it as your own
You must: credit RaneKun and keep modifications open source
Full license text is in the LICENSE file.
Built with Python · PyQt6 · PyInstaller
Inspired by CCleaner (before it got bloated), BleachBit, and the need for a cleaner you can actually trust.
Provided as-is, without warranty. While every option is designed to only touch safe-to-remove data, always keep backups of anything important. The author isn't responsible for data loss or system issues arising from use.
Made with ❤️ by RaneKun
Keep your Windows clean, fast, and clutter-free. 🧹✨