🌌 ZeroClean — Modern System Optimizer & Cleaner

High-performance, modular system & developer workspace cleaner
C# WPF Dark UI + CLI Engine • Universe Plugin Architecture v4.0 • Zero-Risk Dry-Run

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📖 Overview

ZeroClean is a modern disk maintenance and system cleanup utility engineered for developer workstations and power users. Part of the sovereign ZeroUniverse application suite, it decouples cleanup rules into autonomous, self-registering plugins while providing a premium Fluent Dark UI and headless CLI capabilities.

Component	Tech Stack	Role
ZeroClean.Core	C# .NET 8 (netstandard / net8.0)	Scan engine, rule registry, safety barrier, file lock probing, disk analyzer
ZeroClean.Rules	C# .NET 8	Autonomous cleanup plugins (System, Developer, Browsers, Applications)
ZeroClean.Cli	C# .NET 8 Console	Headless command-line runner for automation, CI/CD, and scheduled maintenance
ZeroClean.UI	C# WPF .NET 8-windows	Modern Fluent Dark desktop interface with Live In-Window notifications
ZeroClean.Tests	xUnit .NET 8	Unit test suite verifying protection guards, exclusions, and rules

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🛡️ Core Safety Guarantees

1. Simulation (Dry-Run) by Default:
   • Both CLI and GUI run in dry-run mode by default, computing re-claimable space and validating paths without deleting any files.
2. Immutable System Protection:
   • SafetyGuard prevents deletion of critical OS files (System32, SysWOW64, pagefile.sys, bootmgr, volume root directories).
3. File Lock & Active Session Detection:
   • Probes exclusive write locks. Files actively held by running processes are automatically skipped.
4. Age Threshold Policy:
   • By default, files created or modified within the last 24 hours are preserved to protect ongoing tasks and active temporary sessions.

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🛠️ Categories & Rules

💻 System

• User Temporary Files (sys.temp.user): Cleans %TEMP% runtime leftovers.
• Windows System Temp (sys.temp.windows): Cleans C:\Windows\Temp.
• Crash & Memory Dumps (sys.crashdumps): Post-mortem crash dumps (*.dmp).
• Thumbnail Cache (sys.thumbnails): Cleans thumbcache_*.db (opt-in).
• Windows Error Reports (sys.wer): Archived telemetry and error logs.
• Recycle Bin (sys.recyclebin): Queries and clears Windows Recycle Bin via Shell API.

🚀 Developer

• NuGet Package Cache (dev.nuget.cache): Global package cache (~/.nuget/packages).
• npm Cache (dev.npm.cache): Downloaded package tarballs in %APPDATA%\npm-cache.
• Python pip Cache (dev.pip.cache): Cached wheels in %LOCALAPPDATA%\pip\cache.
• Go Build Cache (dev.go.cache): Compiled binary objects in %LOCALAPPDATA%\go-build.

🌐 Browsers

• Chromium Browsers Cache (browser.chromium.cache): Network & GPU cache for Chrome, Edge, Brave. Preserves cookies & logins.
• Firefox Cache (browser.firefox.cache): Media and script cache (cache2).

📱 Applications

• VS Code Cache (app.vscode.cache): Editor caches, GPUCache, and VSIX downloads.
• Discord Cache (app.discord.cache): Cached media, audio streams, and Electron GPU cache.

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💻 CLI Usage

# List all registered cleanup rules
zeroclean list

# Scan system for reclaimable junk (Safe Dry-Run)
zeroclean scan

# Scan only developer caches
zeroclean scan --category Developer

# Inspect drive storage allocations
zeroclean analyze

# Inspect specific directory footprint
zeroclean analyze C:\Users

# Clean with explicit execution (Live mode)
zeroclean clean --execute

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📦 Build & Publish

Full (Self-Contained Single File)

dotnet publish src/ZeroClean.UI/ZeroClean.UI.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -p:PublishSingleFile=true -o publish/full

Lite (Framework-Dependent Single File)

dotnet publish src/ZeroClean.UI/ZeroClean.UI.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained false -p:PublishSingleFile=true -o publish/lite