storage

name	storage
description	Targeted disk space cleanup for Windows. Use when the user only wants to free up space on their drives without touching startup, services, or system settings. Trigger for: "free up disk space", "my C: is full", "clean up my SSD", "delete temp files", "what's eating my disk", "recover space on Windows".

/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