BleachBit is a free, open-source disk cleaner and privacy utility for Windows and Linux. It removes temporary files, application caches, logs and records of activity, with separate controls for the types of data each application stores. File shredding and empty-space wiping provide additional ways to overwrite data on a drive.
Application cleaning
BleachBit organizes its cleaning rules by application and by data type. A browser can have separate options for its cache, cookies, history and saved passwords, so clearing cached pages does not require selecting every other browser record. Other cleaners handle items such as system logs, temporary files and recently opened document lists.
Selecting a cleaner displays its description. Preview then lists the proposed changes without performing them, giving you a chance to adjust the selected options before cleaning. Applications being cleaned need to be closed so BleachBit can access their data. A keep list excludes chosen files and folders from both the preview and the cleaning operation; custom files and folders can also be added as cleaning targets.
Some operations change particular records inside a file. BleachBit can remove Firefox URL history or LibreOffice’s recent-document list while retaining the rest of the file that holds those records. Its cleaners can also remove selected information from INI files, JSON files and SQLite databases. Database vacuuming compacts supported databases, including those used by Firefox and Google Chrome, without removing their retained records.
Cookie Manager
The Cookie Manager collects cookie hosts from supported browsers into one list. You can search for a domain and mark its cookies to keep, allowing cookies from other hosts to be removed during cleaning. The selection applies across supported browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Brave, which makes it possible to preserve chosen login sessions while clearing other cookies.
This selection covers HTTP and HTTPS cookies. It does not extend to localStorage or IndexedDB, which have separate site-data cleaning options. Protecting those files requires adding their directories to the keep list. Clearing cookies also leaves other forms of website identification outside the scope of that operation.
File shredding
BleachBit can overwrite files selected by its cleaners, or shred specific files and folders chosen independently of those rules. It uses a single overwrite pass and renames files before deletion to obscure their original names. Overwriting takes longer than ordinary deletion because the program processes the file’s contents as well as removing its directory entry.
The storage medium affects what this can achieve. SSD wear leveling can leave original data in physical cells that a file overwrite does not reach, and filesystem journals or remapped disk sectors can retain other traces. BleachBit’s shredding operation also does not remove copies stored in backups or cloud services.
Wiping empty disk space
Empty-space wiping targets the unallocated area of a selected drive, where contents of previously deleted files may remain. You identify a writable directory on each partition to be processed. This can take considerably longer than shredding selected files, and the amount of free space is unchanged when the operation finishes. SSD spare areas remain outside its reach.
Chaff
BleachBit also includes Chaff, a separate tool for generating decoy text files. You choose a supplied text model, a file count and a destination directory. A Markov-chain generator produces meaningless text resembling the model’s vocabulary; it creates additional files rather than erasing existing data.
Linux cleanup
Linux-specific cleaners cover package managers such as APT, Pacman, Snap, Yum and DNF. Other options remove broken shortcuts and unused localization files. For localization cleaning, you select the languages to retain, and BleachBit removes the unselected language files when that cleaner runs. Linux also has memory and swap wiping functions that are unavailable in the Windows edition.
Custom cleaners
CleanerML lets users extend BleachBit with XML cleaning definitions. Rules can identify a particular file, match filename patterns, search directory trees or apply regular-expression filters. Actions include deleting or truncating files, removing Windows registry entries and editing selected configuration data.
On Windows, BleachBit can also import Winapp2.ini definitions for additional applications. An optional preference downloads and updates those definitions. CleanerML remains the cross-platform format for writing custom rules.
Running BleachBit from the command line
BleachBit’s command-line interface exposes cleaner names and options for scripts, batch files and scheduled tasks. Commands can preview a selection, run the cleaning operation or reuse the options saved in the graphical interface. They can also include specific cleaners while excluding individual data types.
