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v0.22.0 - disk cleanup stops trying to recycle 313,000 files
If a disk cleanup of yours has been sitting on one item for a long time, this
is the release that fixes it. Kill the app, install this, and run it again.
Windows update leftovers are deleted, not recycled
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download is routinely several GB across
hundreds of thousands of files - 9.6 GB and 313,263 files on the machine
this was found on. Sending that to the Recycle Bin means moving every single
file individually, each with its own metadata record. It runs for hours, and
when it finally finishes the bin is holding all of it, so nothing is actually
freed until you empty the bin afterwards.
Those are deleted outright now. Windows' own Disk Cleanup does the same, and
they are payloads for updates that are already installed - there is nothing to
restore them for.
The confirmation now lists by name anything that is going for good, and what
it adds up to, instead of promising that everything can be restored from the
bin. Everything else still goes to the bin exactly as before.
The progress line no longer lies
A clean would set the status to "cleaning..." and then the scan's own progress
timer painted the last scan phase straight back over it - so a clean that was
hours into deleting sat there reading "scan finished", which is what made a slow
job look like a dead one.
Each item now names itself before it starts, with its size, and says whether it
is going to the bin or for good. The item that takes a long time is the one you
most need named.
Stop works during a clean
"Stop scan" was hidden while cleaning and "Clean checked" was disabled, so the
only way out was killing the app. There is a Stop cleaning button now.
It is honest about its limit: a single shell delete cannot be called off once
Windows has it, so Stop prevents the next item starting and tells you it is
finishing the current one first.
Still worth testing while you are awake
The NordVPN disconnect-then-stop sequence has never actually run - it cannot be
exercised from a session reaching the machine over Tailscale, because running it
drops that tunnel. Run one real Absolute Idle with a VPN up and watch the
hand-off before relying on it unattended.
Installer: IdleMasterSetup.exe. IdleMaster.exe is the app on its own and
IdleMasterRebuild.exe is what backup kits carry.