cleanup-list-file.adoc

Cleanup list file and listing available applications, categories,…​

Table of Contents

• Cleanup list file
  • JSON Schema for cleanup rules
  • Cleanup list entry properties
• How to define locations
  • Filesystem (files and directories)
    • Wildcards
  • Registry (keys and values)
• Listing cleanup rules
  • List active cleanup rules
  • List inactive cleanup rules
  • List covered applications
  • List categories
  • List entity categories
  • List types
  • List custom categories

Cleanup list file

The default cleanup list file is provided by this repository and is available at: cleanup-list.json. This file defines what will be cleaned.

Important

You can create your own cleanup list file! Or even have multiple files and use them whenever you need them.

JSON Schema for cleanup rules

JSON schema for cleanup rules is available at cleanup-list.schema.json

Cleanup list entry properties

Each entry in the cleanup list represents one cleanup rule. Each rule has the following properties:

• application - the name of the application which produced the garbage

• category - category of the application, like "IDE", "game", "browser",…​ (Categories documentation)

• entity_category - category of the garbage entity itself, like "log", "crash log", "installation backup",…​

• custom_category - optional field which you can use to categorize garbage however you like

• delete

  • type - type of the garbage. One of the following: file, directory, registry value, registry key

    • file will delete a single file.

    • directory will delete a directory and all contents within it (files, subdirectories).

    • registry value will delete a single Windows Registry value.

    • registry key will clean up a registry Key ("folder"), by deleting all values within it. However, it will not delete the key itself or its sub-keys (useful for cleaning Windows Most Recently Used lists and similar Registry values).

  • location - location of the garbage (path on disk or in registry)

• active - whether the cleanup rule is active or not. Only active rules will be used during cleanup.

How to define locations

Since constUP Garbage Cleaner uses JSON for configuration, if you want to use backslashes (\) in location properties, you will have to "escape them". For example, to enter a location like:

C:\Users\YourUser\SomeDirectory\SomeFile.log

your location should look like:

"location": "C:\\Users\\YourUser\\SomeDirectory\\SomeFile.log"

Filesystem (files and directories)

Important

It is recommended (but not mandatory), to either use: absolute paths to files and directories (example: C:\Users\YourUser\SomeDirectory\SomeFile.log) paths with syntax variables, like ~\SomeDirectory\SomeFile.log or %AppData%\SomeDirectory\SomeFile.log For a ful list of syntax variables see: Syntax Variables

Here is the list of the most common syntax variables and their actual locations:

• %AllUsersProfile% - C:\ProgramData

• %AppData% - C:\Users{username}\AppData\Roaming

• %CommonProgramFiles% - C:\Program Files\Common Files

• %CommonProgramFiles(x86)% - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files

• %HomeDrive% - C:\

• %LocalAppData% - C:\Users{username}\AppData\Local

• %ProgramData% - C:\ProgramData

• %ProgramFiles% - C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86)

• %ProgramFiles(x86)% - C:\Program Files (x86)

• %Public% - C:\Users\Public

• %SystemDrive% - C:\

• %SystemRoot% - C:\Windows

• %Temp% - C:\Users{Username}\AppData\Local\Temp

• %UserProfile% - C:\Users{username}

Important

If you are using relative paths (like: ..\someDirectory\someFile.log) in your locations in the cleanup list configuration file, take into account that PowerShell treats relative locations relative to the directory where the script was started from.

If you are always going to enter the directory where constup-garbage-cleaner.ps1 is located and run it directly from there, then you can use relative paths without issues. However, if you add constUP Garbage Cleaner to your system PATH and can run it from any directory, then these relative locations will no longer be valid.

Wildcards

constUP Garbage Cleaner supports wildcards in locations, just like any other PowerShell script. Short version:

• Asterisk (*) matches zero or more occurrences of any character.

• Question mark (?) matches exactly one character.

• Left bracket ([) character and right bracket (]) character surround a set of characters to be matched.

Long version (in official PowerShell documentation): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/samples/working-with-files-folders-and-registry-keys?view=powershell-7.4#matching-item-names-with-wildcards

Registry (keys and values)

Registry keys and values can be used in location like this: HKCU:\SomeKey\SomeValue. There are 5 registry roots, also known as "hives" in Windows registry:

1. HKLM:\ - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

2. HKCU:\ - HKEY_CURRENT_USER

3. HKCR:\ - HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

4. HKU:\ - HKEY_USERS

5. HKCC:\ - HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

Important

Depending on the hive you are trying to clean, you may or may not need to start PowerShell as administrator and then run constUP Garbage Cleaner. Usually, no elevated rights are needed for keys and values in HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

Listing cleanup rules

There are several filters for listing cleanup rules.

Important

All constUP Garbage Cleaner commands have an option to either use the default cleanup list or your custom one. To make this documentation shorter, we will not mention instructions for the custom cleanup list anymore - but it’s available. Just use the -cleanupListFile option and set the path to your own cleanup list.

List active cleanup rules

The following command will list only active cleanup rules:

pwsh .\constup-garbage-cleaner.ps1 -listActive

List inactive cleanup rules

To list only inactive cleanup rules, run:

pwsh .\constup-garbage-cleaner.ps1 -listInactive

List covered applications

To view the list of all applications present in the cleanup list file, run the following command:

pwsh .\constup-garbage-cleaner.ps1 -listApplications

List categories

Categories documentation

To view the list of all categories present in the cleanup file, run the following command:

pwsh .\constup-garbage-cleaner.ps1 -listCategories

List entity categories

To view the list of all entity categories present in the cleanup file, run the following command:

pwsh .\constup-garbage-cleaner.ps1 -listEntityCategories

List types

To view the list of all garbage types present in the cleanup file, run the following command:

pwsh .\constup-garbage-cleaner.ps1 -listTypes

List custom categories

To view the list of all custom categories (which you have defined), run the following command:

pwsh .\constup-garbage-cleaner.ps1 -listCustomCategories