TidyWindow

Windows maintenance companion for builders who care about safety, repeatability, and observability.

TidyWindow consolidates environment bootstrapping, cleanup, registry tuning, diagnostics, and automated repairs into a single WPF application. Every operation flows through managed .NET services that coordinate PowerShell 7 scripts, enforce guard rails, and emit structured activity logs so you always know what ran and how to roll it back.

Key Capabilities

• Essentials repair center (docs/essentials.md): Queue curated automations for networking, Defender, printing, and Windows Update issues. Each task supports dry-run previews, sequential execution, restore-point creation, and detailed transcripts.
• Multi-phase cleanup (docs/cleanup.md): Discover clutter with a fast preview, vet selections with risk signals and lock inspection, then delete via recycle-bin-first workflows or schedule recurring sweeps with conservative defaults.
• Registry optimizer (docs/registry-optimizer.md): Stage preset or custom tweaks with automatic JSON restore points, 30-second rollback countdowns, baseline tracking, and preset customization alerts.
• Install & maintain software (docs/install-hub.md, docs/maintenance.md): Drive winget, Scoop, and Chocolatey flows from a single queue, including automation to keep curated bundles current.
• PathPilot & process intelligence (docs/pathpilot.md, docs/known-processes.md): Manage PATH edits safely, monitor running processes, and flag anti-system behavior with remediation guidance.
• PulseGuard observability (docs/activity-log.md, docs/settings.md): Turn significant Activity Log events into actionable notifications, high-friction prompts, and searchable transcripts while respecting notification preferences.

Safety Systems

• Restore-point enforcement: Registry Optimizer, Essentials repairs, and other high-risk flows create restore points on demand and prune older snapshots to stay within disk budgets.
• Cleanup guardrails: Protected roots, skip-recent filters, recycle-bin preference, lock inspection, and permission-repair fallbacks prevent accidental data loss.
• Sequential automation queues: Essentials and Maintenance flows run one script at a time with cancellation hooks, deterministic logging, and retry policies.
• PulseGuard notification gating: Notifications, action alerts, and success digests respect user toggles (CanAdjustPulseGuardNotifications), window focus, and cooldown windows before surfacing prompts.
• Activity Log + transcripts: Every automation writes structured entries plus JSON/Markdown reports for audits, with direct "View log" actions in PulseGuard toasts.
• PathPilot safeguards: PATH mutations run through validation, diff previews, and rollback checkpoints before touching environment state.

Architecture Snapshot

• Frontend: WPF (.NET 8) views with CommunityToolkit.Mvvm view models (src/TidyWindow.App).
• Service layer: C# services for cleanup, registry state, automation scheduling, PowerShell invocation, and tray presence (src/TidyWindow.Core, src/TidyWindow.App/Services).
• Automation layer: PowerShell 7 scripts in automation/ for essentials, cleanup, registry, and diagnostics; YAML/JSON catalogs describe tweaks, presets, processes, and bundles.
• Packaging: Inno Setup installer (installer/TidyWindowInstaller.iss) plus self-contained release artifacts in GitHub Releases.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Windows 10 or later
• .NET SDK 8.0+
• PowerShell 7 installed and on PATH

Clone, build, and run

git clone https://github.com/Cosmos-0118/TidyWindow.git
cd TidyWindow

dotnet restore src/TidyWindow.sln
dotnet build src/TidyWindow.sln -c Debug

dotnet run --project src/TidyWindow.App/TidyWindow.App.csproj

Refer to docs/getting-started.md for optional dependencies, troubleshooting, and installer usage. Latest signed installers are published with each GitHub Release (current release: 3.3.0). Inside the app, open Settings ▸ Updates to query the hosted manifest (data/catalog/latest-release.json) and jump straight to the newest installer or release notes without downloading a fresh build manually.

Testing & Verification

dotnet test tests/TidyWindow.Core.Tests/TidyWindow.Core.Tests.csproj
dotnet test tests/TidyWindow.Automation.Tests/TidyWindow.Automation.Tests.csproj
dotnet test tests/TidyWindow.App.Tests/TidyWindow.App.Tests.csproj

• Tools in tools/ validate catalog consistency (check_duplicate_packages.py, suggest_catalog_fixes.py) and PowerShell flows (test-process-catalog-parser.ps1).
• PulseGuard and the Activity Log offer runtime confirmation that long-running automations completed or surfaced actionable errors.

Documentation Map

• docs/cleanup.md – Disk cleanup workflow, risk model, and automation scheduler.
• docs/essentials.md – Repair catalog, queue orchestration, and safety features.
• docs/deep-scan.md – Diagnostics, heuristics, and anti-system scanners.
• docs/install-hub.md / docs/maintenance.md – Package installation & upkeep cockpit.
• docs/pathpilot.md – PATH governance with diff previews and rollback plans.
• docs/registry-optimizer.md – Restore-point-backed registry tuning.
• docs/known-processes.md – Process catalog, classifications, and Anti-System signals.
• docs/activity-log.md – Observability pipeline, transcripts, and PulseGuard integration.
• docs/settings.md – Preference system, PulseGuard toggles, and background presence.
• docs/tech-stack.md – Full technology breakdown.

Support, Contributions, and Roadmap

• Follow the guidance in docs/ when extending pages or automation flows to preserve safety guarantees.
• File issues with Activity Log snippets, cleanup reports, or automation transcripts for faster triage.
• Track future work in roadmap.md and GitHub Discussions.

License & Credits

TidyWindow ships under the MIT License (see LICENSE).

The project is built with github copilot assistance alongside contributions from the Windows, PowerShell, winget, Scoop, and Chocolatey ecosystems.