How Prunable stays safe

You see the list first

Nothing is deleted when Prunable scans. It lists what it found, category by category, with the size of each and two plain sentences: what the files are, and what you'll notice after they're gone. Every category shows the exact folders and files inside it.

When you press Review and clean, you get the complete list of what will be removed, and you confirm it. Only then does anything go.

Categories come in three kinds, and Prunable only pre-selects the first:

• Safe: rebuilt automatically when needed, like caches and temporary files. Selected for you.
• Side effect: safe, but you'll notice something, like a game re-downloading its shader cache. You tick these yourself.
• Ask first: your own data, like old downloads. Never selected; you tick each item.

Files that are in use are skipped, not forced. A category whose app is open, like a browser's cache while the browser runs, is skipped and says so; close the app and clean again.

Safe mode is on

Prunable starts in safe mode, and stays there unless you turn on Advanced mode yourself. Safe mode leaves out the tools that need more care:

• the Ask first categories in Clean up (personal and project files);
• ending apps from the Memory tab, which loses their unsaved work;
• switching Windows services on or off;
• repairing Path and other environment variables, removing old driver versions, and uninstalling .NET versions;
• removing leftover registry settings and start-up entries after an uninstall.

Even in Advanced mode, each of these shows you what it will do and asks first.

What it never touches

Before anything is deleted, a final check refuses whole classes of locations, whatever a category found:

• Windows itself, except its temporary and download folders. Program Files, except a program's own folder when you remove its leftovers.
• Your profile folder and everything that holds your work: Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Music, Videos, Downloads (only files you choose), OneDrive.
• Other people's accounts on the same PC.
• Drive roots, network drives, System Volume Information and the Recycle Bin's own folders.

Links are never followed. If a folder inside something being cleaned turns out to be a link to somewhere else, the link itself is removed and what it points to is left alone. Folders are held open while they're cleaned, so nothing can swap one for a link part-way through.

You can also untick a whole drive in the header, and Prunable won't clean anything on it.

Changes can be undone

Deleting a cache is final, and Prunable only does it for things that rebuild themselves. Everything else it changes is written down first so it can be put back:

• Start-up entries, scheduled tasks and services it turned off.
• Registry settings it changed or removed, saved as a backup before removal.
• Leftovers of uninstalled programs, which go to the Recycle Bin rather than being deleted.
• Old driver versions, which are backed up before they're removed.

The list of changes is in the Startup tab. Each line has an Undo button, and there's one to undo everything. The list is kept in a folder only administrators can change, so nothing else on the PC can rewrite what Undo will do.

It does nothing on its own

Opening Prunable doesn't scan anything. Every tab waits until you press its button. There's no background service, no tray icon and no pop-ups.

The one exception is weekly maintenance, which you turn on yourself (it's part of Pro). Once a week it cleans only the Safe categories, skips anything whose app is open, doesn't run on battery, and tells you if a drive is nearly full. You can turn it off in Tune-ups.

Why it asks for administrator rights

Windows keeps its own temporary files, update downloads and crash dumps where only administrators can delete them, so Prunable needs those rights to clean them. It uses them carefully: programs that were installed just for your account are uninstalled with your ordinary rights, and web pages it opens, like the reinstall link for a removed app, open in your normal browser.

Signed by its maker

The setup program and Prunable itself are signed by Loophead Labs LLC. When Windows asks whether to let it make changes, it names that publisher. If it says "Unknown publisher" instead, the file didn't come from us: don't run it.

The download page lists the setup program's SHA-256 checksum, so you can check the file you have is the one we published.

Last updated 21 October 2026.