Cleaning Up

SpaceSharp deletes in exactly one way: to the Windows Recycle Bin, after you confirm. There is no permanent delete anywhere in the app. A mistake is one Restore away in the bin.

Ways to delete

• Select boxes on the map and press Del, or right-click › Move to Recycle Bin.
• Filter, Ctrl+A to select every match, Del.
• Insights › Safe to clear: tick rows, Recycle checked.
• Insights › Safe to clear › Recycle Bin › Empty empties the bin through Windows, which asks first. That one is final, because the bin is what it empties.

Settings › Behavior › Confirm before moving to the Recycle Bin turns the confirmation off if you prefer; the bin is still where things go.

What happens

1. Before a file is sent, its size and last-write time are checked against what the scan recorded. A file that changed since the scan, or a path that now names a different file, is left alone and listed in the result so you can scan again and decide. Folders are sent as they are.
2. Windows moves the items to the Recycle Bin. Files in protected locations are refused by Windows, not by SpaceSharp; expect an error, not a deletion.
3. The map updates without a rescan: the boxes disappear, their parents shrink, and the free-space block grows.

What SpaceSharp will not do

• Touch hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys or swapfile.sys. Safe to clear explains how to free them with powercfg and the paging settings instead.
• Delete anything it found on its own. Safe to clear only suggests; nothing moves until you tick and press.
• Run as administrator for deleting. The elevated helper exists only to read the file table and exits as soon as it has.

Good habits

• Look before you empty: Show on a Safe to clear row selects its places on the map.
• Browser caches: close the browser first, or pages reload slower for a while.
• Package caches (npm, NuGet, pip and the rest) come back the next time a build needs them; that is their job.
• Windows.old removes itself ten days after a feature update. If it is still there, it is because you went back and forth; it is safe to recycle unless you plan to roll back.