Argus Cleaner Documentation

Welcome

Argus Cleaner is an all-in-one storage manager for Windows 10 and 11: it brings together in a single free app what usually takes several programs — disk space analyzer, cleaner, duplicate finder, uninstaller, disk-health tool, Windows optimizer and hardware monitors.

Three principles guide it: everything is local (no data leaves your PC), everything is safe (each action is color-coded before you touch it), and everything is fast (instant analysis by reading the disk directly).

Installation

Argus is portable: no installation, no account, no connection. Ready in seconds.

First scan

On launch, Argus shows a summary of your PC (processor, memory, graphics card, disk health) and then your storage drives.

1. Click a drive. Argus reads its NTFS table and maps in seconds everything taking up space.
2. Explore with the treemap or the 3D map.
3. Move to the Cleanup tab to reclaim space safely.

Quick care

This is Argus's home screen: a single button, “Scan my PC”. Argus examines temporary files, caches, installers you have already used, preinstalled apps and disk health, then simply tells you what can be freed safely.

• Only what is safe is checked: what Windows and your software recreate on their own.
• Each line expands to show exactly what it contains; the line's ring fills up as you check items.
• The space reported at the end is measured on the disk, not estimated.

Interface overview

Argus is organized into tabs, available from the sidebar:

Visualizer & treemap

The treemap turns each file into a rectangle proportional to its size: what's eating your space stands out instantly. Click a block to dive from folder to folder, down to the guilty file.

Each block is colored by safety, and an info panel explains what the hovered file is.

3D map

The 3D map shows your disk in relief, like a city: each building is a file, its height is its size.

• Rotate the view with the mouse.
• Move around with the arrow keys.
• Selection is designed to never open anything by accident.
• Auto-rotate spins the map on its own (one turn in 30 seconds), and Capture image saves it as a PNG.

At the root of a disk, the time machine replays your snapshots (see Timeline): pick a date, or press play to watch your disk being built. A copper outline surrounds whatever grew by at least 1 GB and 5% since the comparison snapshot.

Search

The Search tab filters your whole disk by name, size, date or type. Perfect for spotting large files at once and handling them in batch (delete or move via the action queue).

With administrator rights, Argus keeps a file-name index fed by the Windows change journal (NTFS): searches answer in milliseconds instead of re-reading the disk. The index never leaves your PC; you choose whether to keep it between sessions and can purge it at any time. Without administrator rights, search simply walks the disk as before.

Cleanup & health score

The Cleanup tab detects everything that regenerates: browser and software caches, temporary files, the Recycle Bin, Windows update leftovers, logs…

1. Argus gives the disk a health score and lists reclaimable space by category, each with its safety level (green, orange or red).
2. Temporary folders are emptied, never deleted themselves, and a temporary file less than 24 hours old is left alone: an installation in progress may still need it.
3. The “Exclusions” button protects the folders and files you choose: Argus never touches them again.
4. If a browser is open, Argus warns you: its cache cannot be fully cleared while it is running.
5. At the end, the space freed is measured on the disk.

The “Forgotten files” card finds large files untouched for months and, in Downloads, what you definitely don't need: archives already extracted right next to them and “(1)” copies identical byte for byte to the original. One click selects them; they go to quarantine, reversibly.

Automatic cleanup

Argus can clear safe caches on its own, on a regular schedule, so you never have to think about it. Enable it from the “Automatic cleanup” card at the top of the Cleanup tab.

• Choose the frequency: weekly or monthly.
• A Windows scheduled task silently reruns Argus to clear only user-scope caches (temporary files, browser and app caches).
• A “Test now” button shows the freed space immediately, plus the last run.

Duplicate files

Argus compares files by their actual content (a fingerprint), not just their name: it finds true duplicates, even renamed ones. An assistant shows the reclaimable space and automatically ticks the copies to delete while keeping the original.

Similar photos

In Search → Similar photos, Argus finds your near-identical photos: bursts, crops, recompressed, flipped or rotated copies. It doesn't compare names but the image itself, using a 128-bit visual fingerprint.

• Every format Windows can display: JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC (iPhone), AVIF, TIFF, JPEG XL and camera RAW files (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, DNG…).
• Argus measures the real resolution and sharpness of each photo in a group and suggests keeping the best one: the highest resolution, then the sharpest (a blurry shot is spotted).
• A sensitivity slider (strict / normal / broad) sets how far variants are grouped.
• A cache makes later scans of the same folder almost instant.
• You can send everything to quarantine instead of deleting directly.

Duplicate videos

In Search → Duplicate videos, Argus finds identical videos using one of two methods:

• Fast — same duration, same resolution and similar size, without decoding the video. Ideal for an instant first pass.
• By content — Argus compares the actual frames of each video at three points, then confirms with two control frames: it catches re-encodes, format and resolution changes (the same film in 1080p and 720p). Fingerprints are kept: a second scan only decodes new videos.

The assistant suggests keeping the best copy: the highest resolution, then the best bitrate. Each group shows previews; a click opens the video so you can check. You can send everything to quarantine.

Duplicate music

Under Search → Duplicate music, Argus groups probably-identical tracks by reading their tags (artist, title, album, duration) — mp3, flac, m4a, wma, ogg… — without decoding the audio. It matches files by artist + title, or by title + close duration and size, even when they're tagged differently or re-encoded.

Games: performance and space

The Games tab starts with what gamers ask for: performance, measured on your PC and adjustable in one click.

• Displays — Argus reads each display's name, its current refresh rate and the maximum rate at your resolution. A 144 Hz display stuck at 60 Hz is fixed in one click; without confirmation, Argus goes back to the previous rate after 15 seconds.
• Windows settings — Game Mode, Game Bar background recording, optimizations for windowed games, mouse acceleration, hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (its status is read from your driver). The “Set everything for gaming” button applies the recommended values.
• Standby memory — Argus shows Windows's memory lists and can clear standby memory just before you play; the gain is measured.
• Power plan — switch plans without digging through the Control Panel.

Further down, Argus detects your Steam, Epic, GOG, Ubisoft and Xbox games, shows where the space goes, spots games not launched for months, clears shader caches and can compress a game without changing it.

Project folders

For developers: the Search → Dev projects tab finds large regenerable folders — node_modules, target, .venv, dist, __pycache__… — that are recreated by the project's build or install command.

• A folder is only offered if a neighboring project marker is present (e.g. a package.json next to a node_modules): your actual source code is never touched.
• Sorted by size, with project age — perfect for freeing gigabytes on abandoned projects.

Quarantine (safety net)

Before any deletion, Argus can set aside files and folders in a reversible quarantine instead of erasing them. Nothing is truly lost until you purge.

• The move is instant (no copy): items go to a hidden folder on their own drive.
• From the Quarantine tab, you can restore an item to its original location or purge to free the space.
• A great complement to cleanup, duplicates and similar photos.

Secure erase

For sensitive files, Argus offers a secure erase: instead of a plain delete (which leaves data recoverable), it overwrites the file's contents before erasing it, and renames it so its name disappears too.

• Free-space wipe — fills then erases a drive's available space, making files you deleted in the past unrecoverable.
• The same protected areas as a normal delete are refused (system, roots).

Deep uninstall

Where the Control Panel leaves leftovers behind, Argus uninstalls an app and then hunts down what it left: folders (AppData, LocalLow, ProgramData), Registry keys, Start menu and Desktop shortcuts, orphaned “App Paths” entries.

• Argus asks for administrator permission when the program requires it and waits for the uninstall to really finish before looking for leftovers.
• Programs installed with MSI, Inno Setup or NSIS are removed silently, with no windows to click through.
• Batch uninstall: check several apps, Argus removes them one after another and waits if Windows is already installing something else. An app that is still installed (wizard closed) never has its “leftovers” offered.
• Argus clearly tells you when a restart is needed.

Development tools are protected: the Windows SDK, Visual Studio, Rust, Python, Node, Java or the Android SDK are never treated as leftovers.

App updates

Argus lists software with an available update via winget, the package manager built into Windows. Update a single app or all at once, without visiting each vendor's site.

Optimization & privacy

The Debloat tab removes useless preinstalled apps and turns off tracking, telemetry, Copilot and Recall, Start menu suggestions, the “Let's finish setting up your device” screen and Edge's background mode.

• Apps and settings are grouped by category; manufacturer software (HP, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS) is never pre-checked.
• Fully reversible: every setting can be restored, and an app removed by Argus can be reinstalled in one click from the Microsoft Store.
• Argus creates a restore point before acting, and restores your settings if a Windows update undoes them.

Disk health (SMART)

Argus reads the low-level SMART data of every SSD and hard drive: temperature, wear, reallocated sectors, total bytes written (TBW)…

It derives a clear verdict to anticipate a failure:

Windows repair

From the Health tab, Argus gathers Windows's official repair tools and runs them for you, with no commands to type:

• SFC — checks and repairs corrupted system files.
• DISM — checks (quick diagnosis) or repairs the Windows image, and cleans obsolete components (WinSxS), which often reclaims several GB.
• Reset Windows Update — fixes most stuck updates.
• Reset network — flushes the DNS cache and resets Winsock/TCP-IP.
• Check disk — read-only scan of the file system.

GPU / CPU / RAM monitors

From the home page, click the Processor, Memory or Graphics card cards in the system summary to open a detailed panel — more complete and more readable than GPU-Z or CPU-Z, and 100% local.

Processor

Code name, process node, Performance/Efficiency cores read core by core, exact L1d, L1i, L2 and L3 caches (count × size, like CPU-Z), microcode revision, instruction sets (AVX2, AES-NI…), live per-core load and frequency and temperature. A plain-language analysis explains what it means.

Memory

Details of each module (brand, part number, DDR4/DDR5, frequency, dual channel), the real memory composition (in use, modified, standby, free — like RAMMap), access to Windows Memory Diagnostic, and the live list of the most demanding processes — which you can stop directly from Argus, without opening Task Manager.

Graphics card

Model, VRAM, driver and WDDM model, resolution, live load and memory, and the real PCIe link (generation and width, current and maximum, like GPU-Z): Argus flags a card plugged into the wrong slot or a link held back under load. Temperature is shown for NVIDIA cards.

Notification tray

Argus stays reachable from its notification tray icon (next to the clock): it shows live RAM usage and offers a “Quick clean” of safe caches without even opening the window. A left click brings the app back.

Explorer right-click menu

You can add an “Analyze with Argus” entry to the right-click menu of Windows Explorer folders, to start an analysis directly from any folder. The option is off by default and is enabled from the Optimization tab.

Timeline

The Timeline shows how your storage evolves over time: what grew, when, and how fast. Argus also estimates how long until your disk is full at the current rate, in plain language.

Each snapshot records the complete tree of the disk, not just the largest folders. Pick two dates to compare them: Argus shows, folder by folder, what appeared, grew or shrank in between. Snapshots stay on your PC.

Radar

The Radar shows who is writing to your disk, live, and where. It starts with Argus and keeps watch as long as Argus is running, even when you switch screens: its write rate stays in the sidebar, and only the Pause button stops it.

• As administrator: every program with the bytes it actually writes to the disk (Windows disk counters), its current rate and the folders it probably writes to.
• Without administrator rights: each disk's write rate and the folders where files change. Windows only gives per-program bytes to an administrator: rather than a wrong figure, Argus shows none, and offers “Full Radar”.
• The observations (most active, what is growing, a file rewritten over and over) all come from measurements, with their source.
• The last 7 days: what was written each day while on watch, and the day's chattiest programs. This log stays on your PC and feeds the Recap.
• On the lookout: over the days on watch (two are enough), Argus learns each program's habits. It warns you — Windows notification and a badge on the Radar — when a program writes far more than usual to the disk, sends or receives far more than usual on the Internet, when dozens of your personal files change extension in under a minute (what ransomware does) or hundreds are rewritten, or when a program adds itself to Windows startup. Each alert tells the measured facts: Argus is not an antivirus and never gives a verdict.
• On each alert: open the program's folder, stop it (never Windows, security software or Argus itself), see its details (publisher, digital signature, location), or say “That's normal”: that behavior of that program will no longer be reported. Clicking a program in the ranking opens its details too.
• Internet per program (administrator): what each program sends and receives, read from the Windows network event log; the PC talking to itself is not counted.
• In the background: when you close it, Argus asks whether to quit or stay next to the clock. In the background, the Radar takes a reading every 5 seconds at low priority, without slowing your PC down. At the bottom of the Radar screen: start with Argus, what the close button does, Windows notifications, and starting Argus with Windows, hidden next to the clock (as administrator, the full Radar starts without a prompt).

Recap

The Recap tells your PC's story in shareable cards, in Argus's own voice, like a companion who knows your PC: the space taken back and where it came from, the chattiest program, the busiest day, your disk's growth, SSD wear, your games, Windows age, PC profile. A card only appears if its data exists.

Pick the period: since the start, this year — the year-end recap, offered by default in December — or this month.

• The figures come from the logbook: every clean-up, deletion or uninstall is recorded on your PC, with the space actually taken back. The Recap only counts what Argus has done since the logbook opened.
• Story image (9:16) or square (1:1): the image is made on your PC and saved wherever you choose. No card contains a file or folder name.
• The logbook can be erased in one gesture, from the Recap.

Intervention mode

Intervention mode is for anyone who fixes other people's PCs: a repair technician, an IT volunteer, or the family member everyone calls when the computer is slow. It answers the question every client asks at the end: “So, what did you actually do?”

Without it, the answer is a vague “I cleaned things up”. With it, you hand over a clear, dated report showing how much space was freed, what was removed, and what still needs watching — proof of the work, and a reason to trust you next time.

• Machine history — Argus recognizes a PC it has already seen: “Machine seen before — 3 interventions, last on…”. Run from a USB stick in portable mode, the history of every machine travels with the stick.
• Anonymous mode — hides the PC name and personal paths in the report, handy for sharing it or keeping it in a file.
• Nothing leaves the PC — no account, no cloud: the report is a file you save and give to the client yourself.

Argus encyclopedia

Click ⓘ next to an item. Argus explains what it is for, whether it is safe to delete, and why — thanks to an encyclopedia of thousands of Windows files and folders.

And it doesn't stop at text: “What Argus sees” asks the file itself and Windows:

• which installed software this file or folder belongs to;
• what the executable says about itself: publisher, product, version;
• its digital signature and signer, including the catalog signature of Windows files — an invalid signature is flagged;
• the document type and the program that opens it; an image's resolution, a video's duration.

Everything stays 100% offline: no web search, no online check.

Reading Argus's signs

Argus uses three simple colors, each with a word and an icon:

• The rings in the sidebar show a real measurement: system disk fill, recommended settings applied, the lowest health of your disks. Nothing measured: the ring stays empty — never an invented number.
• Teal = healthy, gold = worth a look or main action, copper = hot zone (disk almost full, wear).
• An irreversible action is hatched, and the heaviest ones are slid all the way instead of a simple click.

Instant analysis (NTFS)

Most file explorers walk folders one by one — slow on a large disk. Argus reads the Master File Table (MFT) of the NTFS system directly: the complete disk map is rebuilt in seconds, without opening each folder.

This is why instant analysis requires administrator rights: low-level reading of the MFT needs them. Argus starts in standard mode; click “Restart as administrator” to enable it. Without admin, analysis still works but slower (classic folder walk).

100% offline

Argus runs entirely locally: no network connection, no telemetry, no account. Verifiable: cut your Wi-Fi and everything keeps working, encyclopedia included.

Your data never leaves your PC. The only possible network access is the donation link, which only you choose to open.

Reliability

• Nothing is lost in a power cut: the quarantine list, disabled startup programs, your exclusions and your settings are saved in one go with a backup copy. A damaged file is repaired at the next launch, and Argus tells you.
• If a part of Argus crashes, it doesn't take the others down; a screen that fails to display leaves the sidebar usable, with a button to try again.
• An incident is written to a log that stays on your PC, and reported at the next launch with a way to open it.

FAQ

Is Argus really free?

Yes, completely and forever. No paid “pro” version, no locked features, no ads.

Is it dangerous for my system?

No. Argus color-codes every item and blocks the vital areas of Windows. Your personal files are never marked “system”.

Is my data sent anywhere?

Never. Argus is 100% offline (see 100% offline).

What languages is Argus available in?

The interface and the file encyclopedia are 100% translated into all 14 languages.

Troubleshooting

“Windows protected your PC” / unknown publisher

Argus is recent and not yet signed by a paid certificate. Click “More info” then “Run anyway”. If needed, verify the SHA-256 hash published on the home page.

An antivirus flags the download

A common false positive with unsigned independent software. If the SHA-256 hash matches, the file is intact.

Why administrator rights?

Argus starts without administrator rights: scanning and cache cleanup work right away. Only instant NTFS analysis, deep uninstall, system tweaks, SMART health and protected deletions require them — then click “Restart as administrator”. It's a technical Windows requirement, never access to your data.

System requirements