Serious Discussion BleachBit update and discussion

Because you said garbage removal in stead of garbage collection and again said garbage collections of SSD is superior to HDD.

HDD's don't have garbage collection, HDD's simply overwrite data. So yes SDD's garbage collection is far superior to HDD's as is the flying capacity of a pigeon far superior to that of an elephant.

Secure delete is the same as bleaching, so not recommended on a SDD
Oh my so good at word play are you. It means effective file moving and deleting on ssd is better than hhd, I did not say one had what the other did, are you done acting like a toddler yet, because frankly you regurgitating what you read others say and nit picking others post does not make you look intelligent, it makes you look like an arse trouble making troll.

I have seen you reddit a post repeatedly rewording things just to poke at others, it's not helpful and certainly reflects on you, I know others have seen it too.
 
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BleachBit 4.6.0.2537 changelog:

These are the changes since version 4.4.2.
  • Clean recently-closed tabs on Firefox (reported by Luran2132).
  • Clean autofill data in Chromium-based browsers (thanks to rados).
  • Clean more of Firefox: AlternativeServices.txt.
  • Improve support for FileZilla (thanks to fbruand).
  • Support new versions of GIMP and add runtime detection (thanks to Finoway).
  • Fix AttributeError and "OperationalError: no such table" when cleaning Firefox (thanks to rados and az0).
  • Add workaround for DLL security vulnerability (reported by Daniel Hulliger, aka dhulliger).
  • Prevent opening other dialogs when making chaff (thanks to sanjaykaria).
  • Vacuum last after other operations in every language (reported by Tobias-B-Besemer, fixed by sanjaykaria).
  • Add title for dialogs.
  • Enable more strings to be translated (reported by bovirus).
  • Improve organization of --help in the CLI (thanks to abitrolly).
  • Show debug information in CLI only if --debug or --preset is set (thanks to abitrolly).
  • Fix crash when wiping free space with Brazilian Portuguese (reported by fnfontana).

Specific to Linux
  • Clean Microsoft Edge on Linux (requested by aoguang).
  • Clean Firefox and Thunderbird when installed as Flatpak (thanks to MauroGuida).
  • Clean Google Chrome as Flatpak (thanks to fbruand).
  • Clean recent documents list on KDE 5 (thanks to Martii).
  • Clean Firefox installed as a snap (thanks to rodin-ia).
  • Add shred context menu for KDE (thanks to kenrap).
  • Keep bookmark icons in Firefox (thanks to rados).
  • Keep xauth files in /tmp (reported by iromeister).
  • Fix "Permission denied: /proc/" (reported by igorog).
  • Use branded icon in application launcher (thanks to baraeerriyachy).
  • Fix detection of invalid .desktop files (thanks to kenrap).
  • Fix the error "The child memory-wiping process returned code 9." (thanks to jonas-w).
  • Notify user when running as root with Wayland (thanks to rados).
  • Fix ModuleNotFoundError (reported by hbednar).
  • Remove Windows-specific files from Linux packages, again (reported by robots4life).
  • Remove unneeded SafeConfigParser causing startup error on Python 3.12 span class="credit">(thanks to mhmdanas).
  • Add python3-psutil dependency.


Specific to Windows
  • Clean more Windows updates (reported by liar666).
  • Fix Windows redirection in Internet Explorer (reported by elgatov).
  • Fix fullscreen bug (thanks to sanjaykaria).
  • Internationalize Windows installer and translate to Italian (thanks to bovirus).
  • Add descriptions for components in installer (thanks to bovirus).
  • Do not report error when wiping path that does not exist (reported by i0629).
  • Do not show error "Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_text_view_scroll_mark_onscreen" (reported by idiowar, fixed by mkhon).
  • Allow Winapp to have drive letter followed by filename (thanks to rados).
  • Update bundled SQLite from 3.37.2 to 3.43.2.
  • Update UPX executable compressor to 4.1.0.

Developers
  • See the list of commits or list of closed issues.
  • Translation has moved from Launchpad to Weblate, which automatically commits changes via Git, which in turn triggers CI builds. This means you can download a Windows build shortly after making translation changes. Weblate also has usability improvements and features to enhance quality.
  • Install depdendency chardet on Travis (thanks to abitrolly).
  • Refactor (thanks to kenrap).
  • Clean more files with make clean.

Homepage

Download link
 
BleachBit 4.6.2
Oct 7, 2024
We are pleased to announce the release of BleachBit 4.6.2, which includes more cleaning of Google Chrome and many fixes, including a missing DLL error on Windows.

Changes​

These are the changes since version 4.6.0:
  • Clean more cookies, cache, and sessions in Google Chrome.
  • Fix ValueError: Unexpected UTF-8 BOM (decode using utf-8-sig) when cleaning JSON files in Google Chrome

Linux​

  • Add packages for Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 39 and 40, and openSUSE Slowroll.
  • Fix detection of Wayland.
  • Fix error SyntaxWarning: invalid escape sequence with Python 3.12.
  • Fix missing developer name in metainfo.xml file.

Windows​

  • There was a major update to the Winapp2.ini file on August 29, which includes many updates for various cleaners. When enabled in the preferences, it is available OTA also for older releases of BleachBit.
  • Restore the missing DLL to fix the regression causing the error "Code execution cannot proceed because msvcr100.dll was not found" that affected many users.
  • Renew the digital code-signing certificate and switch certificate authority. The publisher will now show as Open Source Developer, Andrew Ziem.
  • Fix the excessively long application name in Task Manager and when the application was not responding
  • Fix errors like [WinError 3] The system cannot find the path specified: '\\?\C:\WINDOWS\Sysnative\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.IE5': Command to delete
  • Hide a Linux-specific option in the preferences.

Developers​

Looking ahead​

We have made progress on the next-generation graphical interface with improvements focusing on the file results list. Expect these improvements in BleachBit version 5.0.
 
With BleachBit you can free cache, delete cookies, clear Internet history, shred temporary files, delete logs, and discard junk you didn't know was there. Designed for Linux and Windows systems, it wipes clean thousands of applications including Firefox, Adobe Flash, Google Chrome, Opera, and more. Beyond simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster.
 
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You've provided a great summary of what BleachBit can do. It's indeed a powerful tool for maintaining privacy and optimizing system performance. Thanks for sharing the download link for Windows users.
 

BleachBit 5.0.0​

We are pleased to announce the release of BleachBit 5.0.0. This major update introduces new and improved cleaners, enhanced language selection flexibility, important security updates, and numerous other improvements.

Changes​


These are the changes since version 4.6.2:
  • Add a display-language option in preferences (demo video)
  • Enable closing the application via CTRL+Q or CTRL+W
  • Make updates notifications less intrusive
  • Fix the --debug command line switch
  • Clean variants of Discord such as beta and snap
  • Fix loading of personal cleaners in portable mode
  • Improve experience on multi-user systems by ignoring other users' running processes
  • Prevent invalid entries in the custom and whitelist tabs
  • Improve stability significantly

Linux​

  • Clean Librewolf
  • Clean non-beta Microsoft Edge
  • Clean Bash's temporary files
  • Clean Geary, the email client
  • Improve cleaning of rotated logs
  • Improve cleaning of broken .desktop files
  • Add AppIndicator icon
  • Fix CleanerML external processes with spaces
  • Fix usage of dconf as external command
  • Add .rpm packages for Fedora 41 and 42, and CentOS 9 Stream
  • Add .deb packages for Ubuntu 24.10 and Ubuntu 25.04

Windows​

  • Patch DLL-related vulnerabilities (CVE-2023-47113, CVE-2025-32780)
  • Protect MMC snap-ins (e.g., Device Manager, Computer Management)
  • Upgrade to Python 3.11.10 and GTK 3.24.43
  • Update NSIS installer to 3.11
  • Add metadata such as company name to bleachbit.exe
  • Drop support for starting on Windows XP and 7
  • Update the Windows 10 theme by Christian Medel
  • Fix SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED error on update checks

 
Here's a late announcement from PC World:


I am plotting my move to get off the increasingly ad-aggressive CCleaner altogether.
 
Last time I used Bleach despite all efforts it removed favicons from one browser (I cant remember the details) I used CCleaner from the very beginning until it became an Avast data gathering device & there was no need for its connections to Avast (if you blocked Avast it didn't work correctly) in the end I found Kurt Zimmermann's HD Cleaner which I've found is perfect for my uses & used for some (maybe near on 2 years) time without any issues.
 
Nice! Thanks for the suggestion. From my perspective, it may be better than BleachBit:
1. Include more apps to clean automatically
2. Tons of options in Advanced cleanup mode.
 
  • Like
Reactions: simmerskool
I've run HD Cleaner in Advanced mode & still had no problems, though default works well for me, I don't use the registry cleaner module but there are other handy modules in it that IMO exceed CCleaner pay version by a fair margin. The best 'cleaner' (if you want such a program) I've found free or paid & the developer answers questions & takes on board suggestions, great guy.

@Wrecker4923 For reasons unclear I can't like your last post, maybe a glitch?
 
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BleachBit 5.0.2
BleachBit 5.0.2 is now available! This release adds font size adjustment, full screen mode, new Linux cleaners, and reliability improvements.

Changes​

Changes since version 5.0.0:
  • Feature: to change font size, press CTRL plus -, +, or 0 or hold CTRL while scrolling mouse wheel.
  • Feature: Press F11 to toggle full screen.
  • Fix: --debug-log option did not show debug messages.
  • Fix: OperationalError when vacuuming Firefox versions 140 and later.
  • Fix: Do not show error for non-existent custom folder.
  • Fix: subprocess [number] is still running error message.
  • Localization: 68 languages were updated with 940 changes. The most active were Gaeilge (323), සිංහල (84) and ไทย (50). New languages added: Gaeilge and සිංහල

Linux​

  • Feature: Clean pacman cache.
  • Feature: Clean disabled snap packages
  • Fix: Skip KDE files when cleaning system cache to improve KDE stability.
  • Fix: Improve compatibility in headless and restricted environments such as crontab.
  • Fix: ResourceWarning for subprocess.
  • Add description for Exaile.
  • Make AppStream data translatable.
  • Update application descriptions in .deb and .rpm packages.
  • Add packages for AlmaLinux, Debian 13, Linux Mint Zara, and openSUSE Leap 15.6 and 16.0.

Windows​

  • Fix: error message The function wbindtextdomain() is not available.
  • Fix: Do not hang when cleaning Windows updates.
  • Fix: Improve exception handling for wiping files.
  • The app uses a newly renewed digital certificate, which may cause temporary security warnings from Microsoft SmartScreen or antivirus software. You may report a false positive.

Developers​


Still No Compromises​

And just as important, here's what has not changed:
  • No telemetry or tracking: your privacy stays yours.
  • It works offline without contacting the mothership.
  • There is no intrusive Windows service, making it easy to completely close the app.
  • Every cleaning option is yours to customize.
  • We still clean temporary files and log files.
  • No subscription or paywalls. (We do apologize for the website ads: they keep the lights on.)

Looking ahead​

Better cookie management is around the corner! The GUI is built, and the backend is in progress for the 5.2.0 release. See issue 1329 for a demo video.
The next-generation GUI is in progress for the 5.4.0 release. It will debut as an option, so users who prefer the old interface can continue using it.


Known issues​

See the previous release regarding: blurry font on Windows, unreadable font on Windows, large download size on Windows, or changing the display language.

 
@oldschool Why did you stop using BleachBit did it cause any problems?
I don't really have a need for it. I keep very little, unimportant data on this machine and I let Windows and browsers handle cleaning.
 
BleachBit 6.0.0

BleachBit 6.0.0 Release Notes​

BleachBit 6.0.0 is our biggest release in years, featuring significant new features, deeper browser cleaning, and many usability improvements. Key highlights include a new cookie manager, improved browser cleaning for Chromium and Firefox, new Vivaldi and Zen browser cleaners, and numerous interface enhancements. This release represents months of development work with over 100 improvements and fixes.

All Platforms​

New Features​

  • Cookie manager: A new cookie manager lets you choose which cookies to keep when cleaning Chromium- and Firefox-based browsers.
  • New browser support: Added cleaners for the Vivaldi and Zen web browsers.
  • Deeper browser cleaning (Chromium-based, including Google Chrome): Now cleans component cache, extension cache, Graphite Dawn cache, shader cache, DIPS, crash reports, code cache, media device salts, reporting data, IndexedDB, network state, and search suggestions. Additional databases are vacuumed and cache handling is improved for snap and Flatpak installations.
  • Deeper browser cleaning (Firefox, LibreWolf, Waterfox): Now cleans storage, permissions, bounce tracking protection, site security state, alternate services, favicons, and session backups. Cache handling is also improved for snap and Flatpak installations.
  • Major improvements to Opera cleaning.
  • Reorganized browser options: Firefox and Chromium-based browser options have been reorganized under a clearer "Site data" category.
  • Improved session option descriptions for web browsers.
  • Expert mode: A new expert mode option adds guardrails for less experienced users by restricting advanced operations. Users upgrading from versions older than 5.1.0 may need to enable expert mode to access all features that previously did not have guardrails.
  • CLI negation support: The command-line interface now supports negation. See the CLI documentation for details.
  • Paste paths from clipboard: Press Ctrl+V in the main window to paste files for shredding. Previously, only files copied from a file manager were accepted; now plain text paths (e.g., copied from Notepad) are also supported.
  • Chaff improvements: Faster chaff generation, flexible stop conditions (file count, total size, free space percentage), a stop button, and a completion message. The UI no longer freezes while downloading chaff data.

User Interface​

  • Remember warning choices: You can now opt out of future confirmations directly from the confirmation dialog. (Requires expert mode.)
  • Skip preview when deletion confirmation is disabled. (Requires expert mode.)
  • Custom paths: Visual cues now distinguish custom paths from the allowlist. A context menu makes it easy to manage custom paths. A warning is shown if a protected path is added, which can be bypassed in expert mode.
  • Improved preferences dialog appearance and layout.
  • System Information dialog: Added a button to anonymize system information before sharing.
  • Improved dark theme contrast for error log text.
  • Improved tree view for expert mode: When expert mode is disabled, a warning icon appears next to options that have warnings (such as deleting browser passwords). Toggling these protected options is blocked, and an info bar explains how to enable expert mode.
  • Clarified Chromium sync cleaning: In Chromium-based browsers, cleaning sync data will delete web apps. If the browser syncs to the cloud, web app data can be restored.
  • Renamed "overwrite free space" to "wipe empty space" for clarity, with an elaborated warning message. Also, BleachBit now helps users delete orphaned wipe files if the process is interrupted.
  • Renamed "whitelist" to "allowlist" throughout the application for clearer, more descriptive terminology that directly communicates function.
  • Info bars replace modal alert dialogs for a smoother, more streamlined experience.
  • Locked preferences: Preferences set via the command line (for example, --gui --no-delete-confirmation --overwrite --debug), are locked in the GUI and not recorded to the configuration file.

Bug Fixes​

  • Fix: Do not report a file as deleted when access is denied.
  • Fix: Do not shred hard links.
  • Fix: Avoid an error when cleaning Firefox URL history.
  • Fix: Hyperlink from GUI to help/support page.
  • Fix: UnicodeEncodeError when displaying filenames with special characters.
  • Fix: GUI deadlock when loading malformed XML cleaner files.
  • Fix: --debug CLI option.
  • Fix: --shred is now exclusive as expected.
  • Fix: Excess whitespace in dialogs.
  • Fix: Prevent opening preferences dialog when using --gui --shred from the command line.

Performance​

  • Improved speed of XML parsing.
  • Improved speed of chaff generation.

Localization​


Windows​

New Features​

  • Deeper browser cookie cleaning: More cookie locations are now cleaned for Chromium and Brave on Windows, and a new cookie location is supported for Microsoft Edge.
  • LibreOffice version 4 cleaning is now supported.
  • Windows installer is now localized: The installer can be displayed in your language. If your language is not available, consider contributing a translation.
  • Updated code signing timestamp protocol for the Windows installer and application: now using the RFC 3161 timestamp protocol with SHA-256, replacing the Authenticode protocol which used SHA-1.
  • winreg search type for CleanerML: Allows cleaning apps installed in a path defined by a Windows registry key.
  • Winapp2.ini: Added support for exclusion of registry keys (ExcludeKey#=REG), completing full support for the Winapp2.ini format.
  • Friendly message when switching user profiles: When the application is started from a standard account and the user elevates privileges using a different account, a notification explains that cleaning user-specific paths (such as browser data) will only affect the elevated account. Tip: Declining the UAC dialog when prompted will run the application with standard permissions, which is a good choice when cleaning only your user profile, unless file overwriting is required.
  • Add a warning for the "Update Uninstaller" option in the System cleaner.
  • Context menu in Windows Explorer now loads BleachBit faster.

Bug Fixes​

  • Important fix: Do not follow directory junctions/symlinks in the Recycle Bin. This prevents unintended data loss.
  • Fix: Read-only files were not properly deleted.
  • Fix: "Access denied" error when getting the size of certain files.
  • Fix: Treat "access denied" errors differently than "file locked by another process."
  • Fix: Avoid crash when the SSLKEYLOGFILE environment variable is set.
  • Fix: Avoid crash when run from a folder named bin or lib.
  • Fix: Application icon appearance.
  • Fix: Splash screen appearance is now a simpler design with just the logo and a transparent background.
  • Fix: Error on first start with disconnected network drives.
  • Fix: Poor contrast with Windows 10 theme.
  • Workaround: A new dialog on first launch asks user whether they are experiencing blurry or unreadable fonts, and offers a workaround by switching the font rendering backend. The preference dialog has a new option for toggling the font rendering backend.

Performance & Updates​

  • Improved speed of overwriting files when running with administrator privileges.
  • Improved Windows update cleaning: services are stopped in fewer cases, and unneeded error messages are suppressed.
  • Updated bundled libraries: Python 3.12 and GTK 3.24.51.

Linux​

New Features​

  • Flatpak support: Cleaning now works for ungoogled Chromium and Chromium (org.chromium.Chromium) installed via Flatpak.
  • LibreOffice: Cleans recent documents on Linux.
  • Partition wiping: Calls fstrim when available for more thorough SSD cleaning.
  • Dark mode warning: Users are now warned about that some system themes do not support dark mode.
  • New distribution packages:
    • Ubuntu 25.10, Ubuntu 26.04
    • Linux Mint 22.3

Package Signing​

Previously, .deb and .rpm packages were not signed directly and could only be verified using detached signatures or a signed checksum file. Now, these packages are signed with the maintainer's key, giving you three verification options:
  1. Verify the package signature directly
  2. Use the detached signature
  3. Use the signed checksum file
See the installation documentation for details.

Bug Fixes​

  • Fix: Auto-hide for snap and pacman cleaners.
  • Fix: .ini cleaning for the KDE6 staterc file.
  • Fix: Improved the accuracy of estimated completion time for wiping empty space for non-root users.
  • Fix: Prevent crash when xhost is not installed.
  • Fix: Prevent exception when reading cleaner files with broken character encoding.
  • Fix: Regex in pacman_cache().
  • Improved exception handling for yum/dnf.
  • Improved error message when the requests library is missing.
  • Removed outdated code from the memory cleaner.

Other changes​

For Developers​

  • New Docker-based test system for running automated tests across multiple Linux distributions and environments.
  • pytest support introduced for unit testing (alongside existing unittest), including parallel test execution.
  • New browser testing site: browsergym.bleachbit.org for testing browser cleaning behavior.
  • Major code cleanup and refactoring.
  • CleanerML: Added winreg search type for registry-defined install paths, and ExcludeKey#=REG support in Winapp2.ini.
  • Fix Coveralls integration.
  • Added hidden --no-delete-confirmation CLI argument (for automated testing).
  • Improved compatibility with pytest.
  • List of commits
  • List of closed issues

Website & Documentation​

  • Major improvements to the documentation site at docs.bleachbit.org.
  • The first localized pages on bleachbit.org in Spanish, Italian, and German cover the homepage, download, features, and help pages.

Coming soon​

We are working on a major overhaul of the graphical user interface.

We are backporting fixes and improvements to BleachBit 4.6.3 for Windows XP and Windows 7.

Stay tuned!
 
BleachBit 6.0.2

All Platforms​

New Features​

  • Add cleaning support for Visual Studio Code, Codium, Antigravity, Cursor, Windsurf, and Devin
  • Add support for multiple browser profiles on Chrome and Edge
  • Add cleaner for Claude Code
  • Add DNS cache cleaner
  • Clean AI models from Google Chrome
  • When shredding a filename, reduce data remnants and speed up shredding files
  • Convert Apache OpenOffice (formerly called OpenOffice.org) cleaner from Python to CleanerML
  • Add options to deep scan for developers: venv, __pycache__, node_modules, and .angular
  • Clear clipboard after shredding files from paste operation

User interface and performance​

  • Limit the line width of long warning text
  • Improve the logic that triggers the notice during startup about Expert Mode
  • During deep scan, skip directories listed in the keep list to improve the speed of scanning
  • Stop trying to rename files when an error is not retryable
  • Respond to keyboard interrupt (Ctrl+C) when shredding filenames
  • Warn when the configuration file is not writable
  • Disable the chaff controls while generating chaff

Bug Fixes​

  • If there are errors reading the cookie keep list, then it will abort the cookie cleaning process to avoid removing important cookies
  • Fix: crash in recognition of local cleaners
  • Fix: GUI stops loading if recognition fails
  • Fix: cleaner loading with invalid data types
  • Fix crash with certain Unicode on the CLI
  • Fix: escape invalid Unicode in system information output
  • Fix: allow Unicode in keep/custom lists
  • Fix: avoid losing custom theme icons in Vivaldi by not deleting files in the VivaldiThumbnails folder
  • Fix DuplicateOptionError when restoring warning preferences
  • Improve handling of symlinks in keep list (whitelist)
  • Improve reliability when running external processes without waiting

Windows​

New Features​

  • Add %WindowsSystem% variable for c:\windows\system32 and c:\windows\sysnative
  • Use native APIs to clear clipboard on Windows
  • Shrink the installer and installed size. Re-enable UPX file compression and remove unneeded files. These changes reduced the installer by 700KB, the portable zip by 3MB, and the installed size by 22MB (47%)

Bug Fixes​

  • Fix potential security issue where a malicious actor could delete arbitrary files when cleaning with elevated privileges (CVE-2026-55567). Issue identified by Zeze with TeamT5.
  • Fix access denied errors when clearing the clipboard on Windows
  • Fix crash with unpaired surrogate characters on CLI
  • Fix anonymization of 8.3 short file names
  • Fix handling of unpaired surrogates in keep/custom lists
  • Improve robustness of splash screen

Other​

  • Update NSIS from 3.03 to 3.12 in AppVeyor CI
  • Improve installer experience for unsupported Windows

Linux​

New Features​

  • Add AppImage binary to run on most x86-64 Linux systems
  • Improve detection of trash on Linux
  • Clean Librewolf installed by official .deb
  • Clean Transmission installed as flatpak
  • Add cleaner for Profanity (chat client)
  • Clean Flatpak localizations

Bug Fixes​

  • Handle disk quota exceeded (EDQUOT) when wiping a path
  • Fix: could not run CLI as root under Wayland
  • Improve exception handling with snap
  • Fix: keep .desktop files whose Exec path is quoted
  • Require XDG .desktop files to have 'Name' field
  • Fix AppStream metadata
  • Fix crash on startup when requests was not installed
  • Add python3-requests as dependency in RPM and Debian packaging
  • Read swapfile information as text
  • Fix: drag and drop did not work on Wayland
  • Fix detection of snap running
  • Suppress ImportWarning (seen on older distribution)
  • Handle BrokenPipeError in the CLI (for example, when piping to head)
 

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