BleachBit is distributed free of charge by its developers. Downloads always come from the official project site — this page explains what you get, so you know which build fits your PC before you click anything.
Installer or portable build?
- Installer — the usual choice for a personal desktop or laptop. It adds a Start menu entry, an optional context menu shortcut for shredding a file, and keeps your cleaner selections between sessions.
- Portable — a folder you can drop on a USB stick and run on any Windows machine. Nothing is written to Program Files, which is handy for work computers where you cannot install software, or for cleaning a PC you are about to hand over.
Both builds contain the same cleaners. The portable version simply keeps its settings next to the executable instead of in your user profile.
System requirements
- Windows 11 or Windows 10, 64-bit,
- Roughly 60 MB of free space for the program itself,
- An administrator account if you plan to clear system level items such as Windows update leftovers,
- Nothing else — there is no account, no key, and no online activation.
Before your first cleanup
- Close your browser. Cache files that are still in use are skipped, so you get less back.
- Sign out of nothing else — you do not need to close every app, but do save open documents.
- Create a restore point if you intend to touch the system cleaners. Two minutes now, no regrets later.
- Run Preview first, always. It lists every file that would be removed without deleting a thing.
After installing
Open the program, leave the defaults alone for a moment, and read the description panel on the right as you click through the cleaner list. Then follow the routine in our Windows 11 walkthrough. If you are cleaning a machine that has never had a cleanup tool on it, the disk space guide is the natural next read.
Wondering whether the tool is right for you at all? The feature list and the FAQ cover the questions we get most often.