Meet FluentCleaner Classic

[Belim]

Introducing FluentCleaner Classic. A 3.5 MB, CCleaner-Style Companion to the 140 MB WinUI3 App

I used to be the WinForms king… and somehow I forgot just how ugly our apps used to be. 😂
And no, the screenshot below is not a mockup. I actually downgraded FluentCleaner back to WinForms + .NET Framework.
The worst part?the damn thing actually works.. 💀

Modern vs. Classic. Yesterday I had no idea if I should actually ship this thing… 👀 Today I did, it was public on Twitter for barely an hour before the response made it obvious there was no real decision left to make

Why this version exists

Since FluentCleaner launched, I've received a ton of feedback and a striking chunk of it was technical in nature: roughly 14% of all incoming feedback came from users who couldn't get the app to start at all, or clearly struggled with it. A big part of that comes down to footprint: the WinUI3 version ships the Windows App SDK and .NET 10 runtime, landing at roughly 140 MB unpacked across 243 files. For a lot of setups older Windows 10 builds, locked-down environments, slow or metered connections, that's a real barrier to entry

FluentCleaner Classic is the answer: a lightweight, portable EXE built on .NET Framework 4.8 (WinForms) and .NET Standard 2.0 (the shared cleaning core), running on virtually any Windows install with nothing extra to download. The result: just 20 files and 3.57 MB unpacked a fraction of the WinUI3 footprint, powered by the exact same scan engine and the same Winapp2.ini/Winapp3.ini database

Technical breakdown

	FluentCleaner (WinUI3)	FluentCleaner Classic
Framework	.NET 10 + Windows App SDK	.NET Framework 4.8 (WinForms)
Deployment	self-contained (runtime bundled)	framework-dependent (uses the runtime already on your system)
Unpacked size	~140 MB	~3.57 MB
Files	243	20
Platform	x64 / ARM64, Windows 10 build 17763+	practically any Windows
Shared engine	FluentCleaner.Core (netstandard2.0); scan/clean logic, Winapp2.ini parser	same

Both versions are being developed in parallel and share the same cleaning core (FluentCleaner.Core), so detection/cleaning improvements land in both at once. The database (Winapp2.ini/Winapp3.ini) can be updated straight from GitHub in either app.

What's different right now

FluentCleaner Classic is a fresh, from-scratch port, it's not a 1:1 replacement yet, and I'd rather be upfront about the gaps than have you find out the hard way:

• Not localized yet. WinUI3 ships 12 language packs (English, German, French, Indonesian, Italian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Portuguese (BR), Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese Simplified/Traditional) via a proper per-language resource pipeline. Classic doesn't have that infrastructure in place yet, everything is currently English-only, hardcoded in the UI. Porting a full localization pipeline to WinForms takes real time to do right, and I wanted to get Classic into your hands first rather than delay it further. Language support is planned, not abandoned.
• Compatibility is still being verified. I haven't fully audited Classic across every Windows version/edge case yet, treat it as freshly baked. If something breaks on your system, please report it.
• Not yet at full feature parity with WinUI3. Currently missing or not yet ported to Classic:
  • Theme picker (Light/Dark/System); Classic currently uses the default WinForms look
  • In-app language switcher (tied to the localization gap above)
  • Settings export/import (backup & restore)
  • Portable-mode indicator in Settings
  • Winappx (bloatware/AppX) database support
  • Terminal page (interactive command console)
  • Rule Lab (dry-run testing window for custom cleaning rules)
  • AI-assisted custom cleaner generation (Classic's Custom page still supports manual create/edit/test, just not the AI prompt-to-rule flow)

Everything above is on the radar. Classic will keep catching up release by release.

Downloads

Note the two apps use different version numbering schemes. WinUI3 uses a date-based YY.MM.DD scheme, Classic uses a traditional Major.Minor.Build scheme starting at 1.0.0. Don't read the version numbers as "Classic is behind", they're just versioned independently

	FluentCleaner (WinUI3)	FluentCleaner Classic
Latest version	26.07.03	1.0.0
Version scheme	date-based (YY.MM.DD)	classic (Major.Minor.Build)
Download	FluentCleaner-win-x64.zip	FluentCleaner-Classic-net48.zip

Give this version a try and don't hesitate to share your feedback.

Support

Developing FluentCleaner (WinUI3 + Classic) happens in my free time and the app stays completely free. If it's useful to you, a small donation via PayPal or Ko-fi goes a long way toward keeping both versions maintained in parallel.

---

This discussion was created from the release Meet FluentCleaner Classic.

[thekovic]

When you say "practically any Windows version", how far back are we talking in practice? If I were to attempt to run FluentCleaner Classic on my retro PC with Windows XP, is that something you'd actually be interested in hearing about?