A point-and-click Windows app that keeps exactly one, best-quality English audio track per movie by default (Atmos > TrueHD > DTS-HD MA > DTS:X > PCM > E-AC3 > DTS > AC3 > AAC), removes commentary and foreign-language tracks, and never touches video, subtitles, chapters, or attachments.
It only remuxes (no re-encoding, zero quality loss) using MKVToolNix under the hood.
No install needed - just download and double-click. Windows SmartScreen may show a warning the first time you run a new/uncommon .exe from an unknown publisher - that's normal for any small tool that isn't from a large, code-signed publisher, not a sign of anything malicious. Click More info → Run anyway.
If you'd rather not run a compiled .exe from a stranger sight-unseen (fair enough!) - the full source is right here in this repo. See Building it yourself below, or just read AudioCleanerGUI.ps1 to see exactly what it does before trusting it.
- Windows 10 or 11
- MKVToolNix - if you don't already have it, the app notices and offers to download and open the official installer for you automatically. One click-through (Next, Next, Install), same as installing any other program.
- Download and double-click
AudioCleaner.exe. No install needed. - If MKVToolNix isn't already on your PC, the app will offer to download and open the official installer for you.
- Click Browse... and pick your movies folder.
- Two optional settings, right below the folder picker:
- Keep commentary tracks - tick this if you want commentary tracks kept instead of removed.
- Scan this folder for languages... - click this button and it reads every movie and lists which other languages actually show up (by name, e.g. "German (ger)", "French (fre)"). Tick any you want kept alongside English. Leave everything unticked for English-only.
- Leave Preview only checked for the first run - it shows exactly what would happen without touching any files. Once that looks right, uncheck it and click Start again to actually clean your library.
- There's a Cancel button if you want to stop partway through - it finishes whatever file it's currently on safely before stopping (never leaves a half-written file behind).
Two things are adjustable per run, right in the app:
- Keep commentary tracks instead of removing them
- Also keep one or more other languages besides English - pick them from a checklist of languages actually found in your folder (no need to know any language codes)
Safety model: every file is rebuilt to a temp copy, verified, then swapped in - if anything goes wrong, the original is automatically restored, untouched. A full log file is written for every run.
This tool touches your actual movie files, so it's reasonable to want to check what it does before running an unsigned .exe. There's no compiled/obfuscated logic hiding anything - it's all in one readable PowerShell script:
AudioCleanerGUI.ps1- the entire app, in plain PowerShell
AI disclosure: most of this script was written with AI assistance (Claude). I directed the logic, features, and tested it against my own library, but a good chunk of the actual code came from an AI coding session rather than being hand-written line by line. Flagging it here so it's upfront rather than something you have to ask about.
If you'd rather compile the .exe from source yourself instead of downloading the pre-built one above:
-
Download
AudioCleanerGUI.ps1andBuild-Exe.ps1from this repo into the same folder. -
Open PowerShell in that folder.
-
Run:
.\Build-Exe.ps1 -
This installs a small free tool called
ps2exe(used only for this build step) and then createsAudioCleaner.exein the same folder.
- The MKVToolNix auto-download uses a specific version link that was current when this was built. If that link is ever out of date, the app automatically falls back to opening MKVToolNix's official download page instead, so it's never a dead end - worst case, one manual download.
- Every run writes a plain-text log file into the folder being processed, so there's always a record of exactly what was kept and removed for each movie.
- The language scan only reads each file's track info (fast) - it doesn't rebuild anything, so it's safe to re-run any time, e.g. after adding new movies to a folder that's already been scanned before.
AudioCleaner is free and built in my spare time. If it's useful to you, consider buying me a coffee - it's a big help and genuinely appreciated.
This project's own code is released under the MIT License - free to use, modify, and share.
It relies on MKVToolNix (GPL-licensed, separate project, not included in this repo) to do the actual file remuxing.