FolderCleaner

A lightweight Windows desktop app that automatically deletes old files from up to five selected folders. Runs silently in the system tray and cleans up on every Windows startup.

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Features

• Up to 5 watched folders — select any folders on your PC
• Configurable retention — delete files older than N days (1–3650)
• Runs at Windows startup — registers itself in the registry automatically
• Optional empty-folder removal — clean up leftover empty sub-directories
• Activity log — stored at %APPDATA%\FolderCleaner\cleanup.log
• System tray icon — right-click to open settings or trigger a manual run

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Prerequisites

Tool	Version
JDK	17 or later (e.g. Adoptium Temurin 17)
Gradle	bundled via gradlew.bat — no separate install needed

Make sure JAVA_HOME is set and java is on your PATH.

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Building

Open a command prompt in the project root and run:

gradlew.bat packageMsi

This produces an installable MSI at:

build\compose\binaries\main\msi\FolderCleaner-1.0.0.msi

Install the MSI and the app will appear in your system tray on next login. You can also build a portable EXE:

gradlew.bat packageExe

Running directly (without packaging)

gradlew.bat run

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Settings file

Located at %APPDATA%\FolderCleaner\settings.json:

{
    "folders": ["C:\\Users\\You\\Downloads", "C:\\Temp"],
    "retentionDays": 30,
    "runAtStartup": true,
    "deleteEmptyFolders": false
}