(Guide/Review) Game Cleaner: remove temporary Steam, Epic and uPlay game files to free up space

[Karlston]

Game Cleaner: remove temporary Steam, Epic and uPlay game files to free up space

Game Cleaner is a free software program for Microsoft Windows devices to free up temporary files and leftovers on the gaming platforms Steam, Epic Store, and uPlay.

 

The main idea behind Game Cleaner is not entirely new. Programs like Atomic Cleaner, reviewed in 2008, Tiki Steam Cleaner, reviewed in 2013, and Steam Cleaner, have offered similar functionality in the past.

 

Game Cleaner is a free software program for Windows that cleans up temporary files and folders, installation packages, or unused data from the supported Stores.

 

The program needs to be installed and it requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, and you can download a setup version or portable version from the developer website. You see the following screen when you start it up after installation:

 

 

The program detects installed game stores automatically provided that they are installed in the default locations. It detected the Steam Games and Epic Games installations on a test system correctly.

 

You can modify paths manually and activate the check button next to a path to have Game Cleaner check the new path. It should detect the installation if it used a different path.

 

Switch to the Clean tab in the program's interface to configure the deletion process.

 

 

You find a lot of options to tinker with on the screen. The options are separated into the three supported platforms, shared libraries, and Unreal Engine.

 

The Steam cleaner supports the most options but you find several for each of the service. Most options are selected by default; in fact, only the Steam screenshots folder is not selected by default.

 

To list a few cleaning options:

• Steam: crash dumps, caches, logs, certain file types, e.g. .CLOG, HTTP files.
• EPIC: logs, and caches.
• UPlay: logs and caches.
• Shared libraries: Direct-X, DotNet, PhysX, VCRedist.
• Unreal Engine: Crash course datafiles.

Select "scan now" once you have made the selection to check the locations the files are stored in. The program parses all locations and counts the Megabytes that you can free on the system. No deletion happens at this point.

You can go back and change preferences, and hit the Scan Now button again to add or remove locations from the cleanup process.

 

 

Game Cleaner displays the total amount of data, and the number of files and folders, that will be cleaned when you hit the Delete All button in the interface.

 

The application supports cleaning individual files next to that. Switch to the Files tab in the interface to get a listing of all files and folders that it detected during its scan. The tab separates the data into Files, Folders, and Screenshots.

 

You may select one or multiple files here to delete them without touching any of the other files. Usually, you may want to delete all files but there may be situations where you only want to clean certain files instead.

Closing Words

Game Cleaner is a well-designed program for Windows to free up storage space on devices with at least one of the supported gaming clients. Mileage varies depending on use of these platforms. If you tend to install and uninstall a lot of games and use the clients extensively, you may certainly end up freeing Gigabytes of space on the system.

 

Landing Page: https://www.peusens-software.nl/projects/game-cleaner

 

 

Game Cleaner: remove temporary Steam, Epic and uPlay game files to free up space