storage

/optimize:storage — Disk Space Cleanup

Analyzes what's using space on your drives and recovers it safely, without touching services, startup items, or system configuration.

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Step 1 — Measure before

Run scripts/02_benchmark.ps1 -Label "pre" as Administrator.

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Step 2 — Scan

Run scripts/01_diagnose.ps1 as Administrator.

Focus on these fields from the output:

• C_Free_GB — current free space
• CleanupPotential_MB — recoverable from known safe locations
• TopCleanupItems — what's biggest
• DevCaches_MB — dev caches if present
• top_folders_c.json — largest folders on C: for context

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Step 3 — Show the user what was found

Present a table like:

CLEANUP CANDIDATES
  %TEMP%                     X.X GB   — safe to delete
  C:\Windows\Temp            X.X GB   — safe to delete
  WinSxS (DISM cleanup)      ~X GB    — safe (keeps rollback for current patch)
  Windows Update cache       X.X GB   — safe to delete
  C:\AMD / C:\NVIDIA         X.X GB   — driver installer leftovers
  Chrome cache               X.X GB   — safe to delete
  npm cache                  X.X GB   — safe (recreates automatically)
  pip cache                  X.X GB   — safe (recreates automatically)
  ...
TOTAL POTENTIAL: ~X GB

Ask if there's anything they want to skip.

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Step 4 — Execute cleanup

Stop services that lock files before cleaning:

Stop-Service wuauserv, BITS, WSearch, DiagTrack -Force

Clean in this order:

Safe, always clean:

1. %TEMP% (user temp)
2. C:\Windows\Temp
3. C:\tmp (if exists)
4. C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download
5. C:\AMD, C:\NVIDIA, C:\Intel (driver leftovers, if they exist)
6. Windows Error Reporting: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive + ReportQueue
7. Browser caches (kill browsers first: taskkill /f /im chrome.exe etc.)
8. Spotify cache (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Spotify\Storage)
9. Steam download/temp cache
10. Thumbnail and icon cache (Explorer)
11. Font cache DAT files (stop FontCache service first)

Dev caches (only if dev tools are present on this machine):

• npm: npm cache clean --force or delete %APPDATA%\npm-cache
• pnpm: pnpm store prune
• pip: pip cache purge or delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\pip\Cache
• cargo: delete %USERPROFILE%\.cargo\registry\cache (src/ stays)
• gradle: delete %USERPROFILE%\.gradle\caches Ask before cleaning dev caches — confirm the user has dev tools installed.

DISM WinSxS cleanup (takes 10-30 min, significant space):

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

/ResetBase removes rollback for already-installed updates. Safe unless you plan to uninstall recent Windows updates. Ask before running.

Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr): Set StateFlags0099 = 2 for all categories, then run cleanmgr /sagerun:99. ⚠️ Monitor it — if CPU usage freezes at an exact value for 10+ minutes, kill the cleanmgr process. The space it found is already counted.

Delivery Optimization cache:

Delete-DeliveryOptimizationCache -Force

Restart services after:

Start-Service wuauserv, BITS, WSearch
Start-Process explorer.exe

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Step 5 — Large software audit (optional)

If after cleanup space is still tight, look at installed_software.json from the diagnosis and top_folders_c.json for large items to discuss with the user:

• Large games → move to secondary drive or uninstall
• Multiple versions of the same software → keep only the latest
• Audio sample libraries → can usually be moved to a secondary drive
• Old Docker images / WSL distros → docker system prune, wsl --unregister

Never uninstall anything without explicit user confirmation.

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Step 6 — Measure after

Run scripts/02_benchmark.ps1 -Label "post" — prints the delta automatically.

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References

• scripts/01_diagnose.ps1
• scripts/02_benchmark.ps1