Dustpan

A fast, safe Windows PC cleaner built with Rust + Tauri + React.

Scans for junk files, unused developer build artifacts, and large files — shows you exactly what it found, and deletes only what you approve.

---

Features

Junk File Cleaner

• Parallel scanning via Rayon — fast even on large cache directories
• Category-based control with Low / Medium / High risk levels
• Medium-risk categories (System Temp, Prefetch, Windows Update) require administrator elevation
• Dry-run mode to preview deletions before committing

Developer Artifacts Scanner

• Detects unused node_modules, .venv, target/, .next, __pycache__, .gradle
• Verifies project marker files (package.json, Cargo.toml, etc.) to avoid false positives
• Skips tool directories: .nvm, .volta, .cargo, AppData, scoop, and more
• Confidence scoring (High / Medium / Low) — Low confidence items not auto-selected

Large File Explorer

• Find the biggest files across all drives above a configurable size threshold
• File risk classification: Safe, App Data, System
• System files (.exe, .dll, .sys, .vhd, .vmdk, .iso) are shown but cannot be deleted
• App Data files flagged with warning before deletion

Safety First

• Recycle Bin mode on by default — all deletions go to Recycle Bin and can be restored
• Confirm dialog before every deletion with full size breakdown
• AppData directory skipped during all drive scans
• No registry writes, no background services, no telemetry

Clean History

• Every clean session recorded in a local SQLite database
• Dashboard shows total space freed, session count, and per-session bar chart

Settings

• Persistent TOML config at %APPDATA%\cleaner-app\config.toml
• Toggle categories, set minimum file age, add custom/exclude paths
• Switch between Recycle Bin and permanent deletion

---

Installation

Option A — Download installer

Grab the latest .msi or .exe installer from the Releases page.

Option B — Build from source

Prerequisites:

• Rust toolchain with MSVC target (x86_64-pc-windows-msvc)
• Node.js 18+ and pnpm
• Visual Studio Build Tools (C++ workload)

git clone https://github.com/kidkender/dustpan
cd dustpan
pnpm install
pnpm tauri build

The installer is output to:

target/release/bundle/msi/Dustpan_x.x.x_x64_en-US.msi
target/release/bundle/nsis/Dustpan_x.x.x_x64-setup.exe

---

Development

pnpm install          # install frontend dependencies
pnpm tauri dev        # start dev server with hot reload

cargo build           # build Rust workspace
cargo test            # run all tests
cargo clippy          # lint

---

Project Structure

dustpan/
├── crates/
│   ├── cleaner-core/       # Library: scanning, analysis, deletion, config
│   │   ├── src/
│   │   │   ├── categories.rs   # Junk category registry
│   │   │   ├── scanner.rs      # Parallel file scanner
│   │   │   ├── analyzer.rs     # Aggregation and reporting
│   │   │   ├── cleaner.rs      # Deletion with Recycle Bin support
│   │   │   ├── dev_artifacts.rs # Dev artifact detection
│   │   │   ├── large_files.rs  # Large file scanner with risk scoring
│   │   │   ├── config.rs       # TOML config load/save
│   │   │   └── platform/       # Windows-specific paths and elevation
│   └── cleaner-cli/        # (legacy) CLI interface
├── src/                    # React frontend
│   ├── pages/
│   │   ├── HomePage.tsx        # Category selection + dev artifacts toggle
│   │   ├── ScanningPage.tsx    # Live scan progress
│   │   ├── ResultsPage.tsx     # Scan results with filter/sort
│   │   ├── CleaningPage.tsx    # Deletion progress
│   │   ├── DonePage.tsx        # Clean report
│   │   ├── LargeFilesPage.tsx  # Large file explorer
│   │   ├── HistoryPage.tsx     # Clean history dashboard
│   │   └── SettingsPage.tsx    # App settings
│   └── lib/
│       └── api.ts              # Tauri command wrappers
├── src-tauri/              # Tauri backend
│   └── src/
│       ├── commands.rs         # Tauri command handlers
│       ├── history.rs          # SQLite session history
│       └── state.rs            # App state
└── Cargo.toml              # Workspace root

---

Junk Categories

ID	Name	Risk	Admin Required
user_temp	User Temp Files	Low	No
browser_chrome	Chrome Cache	Low	No
browser_edge	Edge Cache	Low	No
browser_firefox	Firefox Cache	Low	No
thumbnail_cache	Thumbnail Cache	Low	No
crash_dumps	Crash Dumps	Low	No
system_temp	System Temp Files	Medium	Yes
windows_update	Windows Update Cache	Medium	Yes
prefetch	Prefetch Files	Medium	Yes
log_files	Log Files	Medium	Yes

---

Configuration

%APPDATA%\cleaner-app\config.toml

enabled_categories = [
    "user_temp",
    "browser_chrome",
    "browser_edge",
    "browser_firefox",
    "thumbnail_cache",
    "crash_dumps",
]

# Only delete files older than N days (0 = no filter)
min_age_days = 0

# Additional directories to include in junk scans
custom_paths = []

# Paths that will never be touched
exclude_paths = []

# Send to Recycle Bin instead of permanent deletion (recommended)
use_recycle_bin = true

---

License

MIT — see LICENSE