DeepPurge v0.9.1

A thorough, open-source Windows uninstaller that goes deep. Removes programs completely, hunts down every leftover, and cleans system cruft that other tools miss. Ships a GUI and a headless CLI for scripting / Task Scheduler / Intune / SCCM.

Features

Uninstall

• Installed Programs - Full registry scan (HKLM + HKCU, 32/64-bit) with extracted program icons
• Bulk Uninstall - Multi-select + one-click sequential uninstall with silent flags auto-applied (inspired by BCUninstaller)
• winget integration - Programs tracked by winget are tagged with their package ID; upgrade-available badge + right-click → "Upgrade via winget"; uninstall uses winget uninstall --id ... --exact before registry fallbacks, and doctor reports source health when package-manager enrichment degrades (inspired by BCU source-adapter pattern)
• Scoop integration - Scoop apps that skip the Windows installer DB are auto-discovered, merged into the list, and removed through scoop uninstall
• Chocolatey integration - choco list --local-only --limit-output entries are merged into the installed programs list and removed through non-interactive choco uninstall
• Privilege-contained package managers - winget, Scoop, and Chocolatey resolve from known absolute install roots and run as the original non-elevated desktop user, never with the GUI's administrator token or a current-directory/PATH-selected shim
• Explicit removal capability and trust - Each row declares a NativeUninstaller, PackageManager, PortableFolder, GameLauncher, or Unsupported action with source identity, executable, arguments, owner/publisher, signature, and risk facts. Unsupported actions are disabled and the action is revalidated immediately before execution.
• Recoverable portable removal - Portable folders are moved to the Recycle Bin as one recoverable action; game-launcher discoveries are review-only until a source-native uninstall command is available.
• Silent-switch database - Curated per-installer-family silent flags (/S, /qn, /VERYSILENT, /quiet, Squirrel --uninstall --silent) with vendor fingerprint overrides (inspired by PatchMyPC)
• Forced Uninstall - Scan for remnants of already-removed or partially uninstalled programs
• Windows Apps - Remove UWP/MSIX apps including system bloatware
• Leftover Scanner - Three scan modes (Safe / Moderate / Advanced) for registry keys, files, and folders
• Export - Export installed programs list to HTML, CSV, or JSON

Cleanup

• Junk Cleaner - Browser caches, temp files, crash dumps, prefetch, installer cache, Windows Update leftovers
• Evidence Remover - Recent documents, jump lists, thumbnail cache, clipboard, DNS cache, Explorer history, Windows logs, crash reports, error reports, font cache, delivery optimization cache
• Empty Folders - Scan common locations for empty directory trees and remove them
• Disk Analyzer - Folder size breakdown and large file finder (50MB+) with delete capability. Uses WizTree's raw-MFT technique (FSCTL_ENUM_USN_DATA + FSCTL_GET_NTFS_FILE_RECORD) on NTFS volumes; parallel FindFirstFileExW(FIND_FIRST_EX_LARGE_FETCH) fallback on ReFS/exFAT/FAT32. Typical full-drive scan in seconds.
• MSI/MSP orphan cleanup - Scans %WINDIR%\Installer for old MSI/MSP files not referenced by active Windows Installer products
• Dry-run / Preview mode - Every destructive pipeline can be previewed: enumerate and size items without touching them (inspired by BleachBit)
• Secure Delete - Privacy-grade selected-file wipe (single-pass cryptographic random + opaque rename + delete; no volume free-space fill) (inspired by BleachBit/PrivaZer)
• Live progress bars - Every long-running delete reports item / total / bytes-freed / current path in the status bar
• Skipped-item details - Junk and Evidence cleanup summaries expose redacted reasons for missing, denied, unsafe, locked, command-failed, and too-recent items in GUI status, CLI text, CLI JSON, and activity history

System Management

• Autorun Manager - Registry Run/RunOnce, startup folders, and service autoruns with reversible disable (StartupApproved pattern), guarded deletion where a rollback provider exists, and explicit unsupported states for protected sources
• Startup Impact ratings - High / Medium / Low per autorun process, parsed from the Windows Diagnostic Infrastructure boot traces in System32\wdi\LogFiles\StartupInfo\*.xml. Same metric Task Manager uses — no undocumented APIs.
• Digital signature badges - Every autorun entry and service shows its WinVerifyTrust result (signer CN / Unsigned / Untrusted / Revoked) (inspired by Sysinternals Autoruns)
• Browser Extensions - Scan extensions across Chrome, Edge, Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi, and Opera; remove only exact profile packages while protecting system and stale entries
• Driver Store cleanup - Enumerate third-party driver packages via pnputil /enum-drivers, group by .inf family, flag old versions for removal, and keep firmware/system packages pinned. A removal exports and hashes the full package to administrator-owned rollback storage before invoking pnputil /delete-driver; the CLI and WPF surface expose the operation identity and verified reinstall path. (inspired by RAPR / DriverStoreExplorer)
• Context Menu Cleaner - Find and remove orphaned shell context menu entries with broken executables or CLSIDs
• Shortcut repair - Enumerate .lnk files on Desktop / Start Menu via IShellLinkW COM; flag and delete broken-target shortcuts
• Services Manager - View all Windows services, identify orphaned services pointing to deleted executables, disable or delete
• Scheduled Tasks - Full task inventory with orphan detection, disable and delete capabilities
• Registry Hunter - Parallel substring or regex search across HKLM, HKLM\WOW6432Node, HKCU, and HKCR with scope filters (keys / names / data), live hit counter, and depth / hit / time caps (inspired by NirSoft RegScanner and Eric Zimmerman's Registry Explorer)

Windows Repair

• SFC / DISM / chkdsk - One-click sfc /scannow, DISM /RestoreHealth, DISM /StartComponentCleanup (WinSxS), chkdsk with live stdout streaming
• Font + Icon cache rebuild - Fixes broken cache corruption without a reboot
• Per-app repair - winget repair <id> and msiexec /fa {ProductCode} /qn for reinstall-without-data-loss

Installation Monitor (flagship)

• Before/after snapshot - Captures filesystem + registry manifest before and after a traced installer; the diff becomes a precise per-app removal list
• Replay uninstall - "Forced Uninstall" references the exact manifest instead of heuristic name-matching and skips replay files whose created-object identity, size, timestamp, or SHA256 no longer matches the captured identity. Legacy manifests and diagnostic-only journal evidence cannot be replayed.
• Diagnostic journal evidence - The optional USN/Sysmon trace records parent-resolved filesystem changes and installer-process-tree registry activity for review, while authoritative pre/post snapshots decide what can be replayed.
• Manifests persisted in %LocalAppData%\DeepPurge\Snapshots\<name>.manifest.json (or ./Data/Snapshots/ in portable mode)

Community Cleaner Definitions

• winapp2.ini integration - Parses the community-maintained winapp2.ini database (2,500+ third-party cleaners). Updates record schema/source/commit/SHA256/trust provenance, show expanded file/registry target diffs, retain a last-known-good backup, restore it if the metadata commit fails, and protect Windows package-manager state such as the WinGet pin database.
• Validated custom JSON cleaners - Define versioned *.cleaner.json documents with schema linting, risk labels, origin/SHA256/trust facts, expanded target previews, registry scope checks, and estimates. Invalid or unsafe files are quarantined; valid definitions are copied to LastKnownGood. Use deeppurgecli cleaners schema and deeppurgecli cleaners validate <file> before list|preview|run [--dry-run].

Duplicate Finder

• Three-stage hash - Group by exact byte-size → XXH3 first-MB head-hash → XXH3 full-file for remaining collisions. Skips reparse points / junctions to avoid infinite loops. (algorithm from Czkawka / fdupes)
• Explicit keeper and identity revalidation - Select the retained copy in each GUI group, or pass --reference-folder to protect a known-good directory from CLI duplicate removal. Every pending candidate is re-statted and fully re-hashed before deletion; changed groups abort safely and report exact skipped/failed counts.

Health Dashboard

• System health score - Assesses 4 categories (Junk Files, Privacy, Startup Impact, Disk Space) with 0-100 scores and A-F grade

Program Discovery

• Portable app detection - Scans Desktop, Downloads, PortableApps folders, and removable drives for standalone executables not tracked by any installer. Shows with a "Portable" source badge. (only Uninstalr previously offered this)
• Game platform detection - Discovers Steam games (via libraryfolders.vdf + appmanifest_*.acf), Epic Games (via .item manifests), and GOG Galaxy titles (via registry). Games appear in the unified programs list with platform badges.
• Game removal safety - Discovered games expose their launcher/source identity and remain non-actionable until DeepPurge can invoke the platform's native uninstall operation.
• Bundleware / sideload detection - Flags programs installed on the same day from a non-trusted publisher that appear as the sole representative of their publisher — likely bundled silently with other software.
• OEM bloat scoring - Flags likely OEM support/trial utilities while suppressing driver and firmware components
• BAM remnant discovery - Reads Windows Background Activity Moderator data to find previously-executed binaries that are no longer installed. Available via deeppurgecli orphans --remnants.

System Slimming

• Windows component cleanup - Scans ~15 removable components (wallpapers, sample media, help files, MSI patch cache, delivery optimization, WER reports, font cache, log folders, Windows.old) with per-item sizes and delete through SafetyGuard. The GUI surface is available in Expert mode; deeppurgecli slim is scan-only by default and requires --delete for mutation (--dry-run previews the selected policy).

Shell Integration

• Context menu - deeppurgecli register-shell adds "Uninstall with DeepPurge" to the right-click menu for .exe files. unregister-shell removes it. The GUI accepts --target <path> to pre-populate the forced-uninstall panel.
• Expert / Safe mode - Toggle visibility of advanced operations (secure delete, advanced scan, registry hunter, service deletion). Persists between sessions via settings.json.
• Versioned settings import/export - Move excluded paths, cookie whitelist, program notes, privacy retention, and safety defaults between installed/portable deployments with schema metadata, redacted previews, validation errors, and rollback backups.

Safety

• System Restore Points - View, create, and manage restore points
• Automatic restore point creation before uninstall operations (one per batch in bulk mode — Windows throttles SRSetRestorePoint)
• Deletion Recovery panel - list deletion manifests, preview recorded file/registry deletions, and run dry-run or live restores; registry rollback accepts only the exact SHA-256-bound artifact named by a versioned operation record
• Registry Backups panel - Open the ACL-protected %ProgramData%\DeepPurge\RegistryBackups store; every artifact binds its hive, subkey/value, object identity, owner/DACL, and operation ID, and legacy manifests cannot auto-discover a .reg file
• Recycle Bin for ordinary file cleanup through IFileOperation where supported, with explicit permanent-delete and secure-delete outcomes
• Typed cleanup results distinguish preview, recycled, permanent, secure, queued, skipped, failed, and cancelled items; only confirmed mutations enter recovery manifests
• Administrative mutation ledger for firewall, PATH, autorun, service, scheduled-task, shell, and DeepPurge schedule changes with before/after state, rollback data, verification, and exact typed outcomes
• Installed-program removal capability/trust facts are visible in the GUI, CLI list/uninstall output, and CSV/HTML/JSON exports before an action reaches the elevated process
• Protected services, firewall rules, PATH entries, registry roots, and Microsoft scheduled-task paths are skipped before production mutation; unsupported rollback-sensitive actions are disabled in the WPF surface
• Confidence-based leftover classification (Safe / Moderate / Risky)
• Leftover ownership evidence and conflict review: another product's install root, protected Windows scope, and weak single-source matches are never auto-removable
• Centralized SafetyGuard blocks every destructive call against Windows, Program Files, System32, and protected registry hives
• Windows-owned helpers resolve only from protected absolute system paths; unknown relative executables and ambiguous registered-uninstaller command lines fail closed

Automation

• DeepPurgeCli.exe - Full headless surface. Every workflow (uninstall, clean, repair, driver/shortcut/duplicate scans, install-trace, winapp2 run, update check) is scriptable. Exit codes follow BCU convention (0/1/2/13/1223).
• Scheduled cleaning - Registers Task Scheduler 2.0 exec actions in \DeepPurge\ with separate executable/argument fields. Highest-privilege jobs run a content-addressed single-file CLI copy from an administrator-owned %ProgramData% store; GUI/CLI diagnostics expose the registered principal, action, and ACL trust. Legacy wrappers migrate to disabled dry-run definitions without being read or executed.
• Tray icon - DeepPurge can minimize to the Windows tray, show scheduled-cleaning status, refresh schedule notifications, and launch a background dry-run clean preview.
• Portable mode - Drop a file named DeepPurge.portable next to the exe; every setting / backup / log redirects to ./Data/ beside the binary. USB-stick / field deployment ready. (BCU pattern)
• Update checker - Hits GitHub Releases API to flag available upgrades; never blocks startup.

Themes

Ten built-in themes with runtime switching and persistence between sessions:

• DeepPurge Slate (graphite/cyan, default)
• Catppuccin Mocha (dark)
• OLED Black (pure black, blue accent)
• Dracula (classic purple)
• Nord Polar (frost tones)
• GitHub Dark (official palette)
• Obsidian (deep black, lavender accent)
• Matrix (neon green on black)
• Arctic (light mode)
• High Contrast (WCAG AAA, bright saturated accents on pure black)

Build

Requires the exact .NET SDK 10.0.302; global.json disables SDK roll-forward. Install that SDK before running BUILD.bat from the project root. Restore uses the committed package lockfiles and fails if dependency versions drift.

BUILD.bat

Output:

• build\DeepPurge.exe - GUI, ~66 MB, requireAdministrator manifest
• build\DeepPurgeCli.exe - CLI, ~66 MB, asInvoker manifest (scriptable, elevate externally if needed)
• build\SHA256SUMS.txt - SHA256 hashes for the published release assets

Both executables are self-contained single-file x64 portable builds. Add ARM64 package entries only after matching ARM64 assets are attached to the release and covered by SHA256SUMS.txt.

CLI quickstart

DeepPurgeCli list # TSV-formatted installed programs
DeepPurgeCli uninstall "Some App" --silent # Silent uninstall with auto-flag detection
DeepPurgeCli uninstall "Git.Git" --dry-run # Preview source-native uninstall command
DeepPurgeCli clean junk evidence --dry-run # Preview what would be freed
DeepPurgeCli health --json # Score junk, privacy, startup, and disk hygiene
DeepPurgeCli slim --dry-run # Preview selected Windows component cleanup
DeepPurgeCli repair sfc # sfc /scannow
DeepPurgeCli drivers --old # Old driver packages ready to remove
DeepPurgeCli drivers --remove oem42.inf --dry-run # Preview export-first removal
DeepPurgeCli drivers --remove oem42.inf # Export, hash, and remove; prints rollback operation id
DeepPurgeCli drivers --rollback <operation-id># Validate hashes and reinstall the recorded INF
DeepPurgeCli startup-impact # High/Medium/Low per autorun process
DeepPurgeCli duplicates C:\Users\you # Duplicate file groups
DeepPurgeCli duplicates C:\Users\you --delete --reference-folder C:\Users\you\Documents\Keep --dry-run # Preview guarded removal
DeepPurgeCli snapshot trace "MyApp" setup.exe # Record install delta
DeepPurgeCli update-winapp2 --check-only # Show local/remote database provenance
DeepPurgeCli update-winapp2 # Update with an expanded-target diff and rollback backup
DeepPurgeCli winapp2 .\winapp2.ini --dry-run # Run community cleaner database
DeepPurgeCli schedule add --name Nightly --freq weekly --time 03:00 --day Mon --args "clean junk evidence"
DeepPurgeCli schedule list
DeepPurgeCli schedule migrate # Replace legacy wrappers with disabled protected dry-runs
DeepPurgeCli schedule remove --name Nightly
DeepPurgeCli settings prune --dry-run # Preview expired logs/activity/manifests to remove
DeepPurgeCli settings import settings.json --preview # Validate an import without changing local settings
DeepPurgeCli check-update
DeepPurgeCli doctor # Environment self-test (16 checks, including package sources)

Testing

dotnet test tests/DeepPurge.Tests/DeepPurge.Tests.csproj

The current suite has 454 tests covering parser routing, protected helper resolution, original-user process brokering, package-manager command builders and source diagnostics, cleaner schema validation, cleanup failure reporting, release validation, privacy retention, SafetyGuard block/allow lists, handle-bound deletion/rollback, protected Task Scheduler registration and migration, versioned settings import/export contracts, capability-to-surface routing, observable enrichment updates, static WPF accessibility/resource-drift checks, and support-bundle redaction. Release builds run the suite, project-level dependency audit, and locked restore by default; use Build.ps1 -SkipTests only for an explicitly test-free inner-loop publish.

Packaging

• winget — packaging/winget/SysAdminDoc.DeepPurge.yaml (submit via wingetcreate)
• Scoop — packaging/scoop/deeppurge.json (drop into a personal bucket)
• GitHub Releases — build locally with BUILD.bat / Build.ps1, attach both executables plus SHA256SUMS.txt, then run Build.ps1 -ValidateReleaseOnly -ReleaseChecksumsPath <path-to-SHA256SUMS.txt> before publishing package manifests; the default Release path runs locked restore, tests, and the project-level NuGet dependency audit
• Dependency audit — run Build.ps1 -AuditDependenciesOnly to report outdated packages and block vulnerable or unreadable dependency graphs across Core, App, CLI, and Tests without using the solution-level dotnet list path
• Authenticode signing — ./Build.ps1 -Sign -CertPath signing.pfx -CertPassword (Read-Host -AsSecureString)

Requirements

• Windows 10/11
• Run as Administrator (enforced by the manifest)
• .NET SDK 10.0.302 (build only; exact version required)
• Optional: winget (auto-detected; doctor reports version/list parser health when unavailable or degraded)
• Optional: Scoop in %USERPROFILE%\scoop\apps (filesystem-scanned; doctor reports root availability and app count)
• Optional: Chocolatey (choco.exe on PATH; doctor reports version/list parser health when unavailable or degraded)

License

MIT License