Keep Preview file list when selecting app/function

Submitted by mr-b on Sat, 02/07/2026 - 03:44
Forums: 
Suggestions

Hi

Summary:
Please keep the Preview file list visible when clicking on the left pane app/function

Background:
Tx for producing the best cleaner app I've found,
My issue is that my C: drive keeps filling up for unknown reasons and this app looks like it could help pinpoint the offenders.

So I tick various suspect apps/functions and run Preview. This gives me a laundry list of offending files. But I'm only really interested in the largest offenders and their locations. I can't sort on file size in the right pane but the left pane gives me a handy file size totaliser. But as soon as I click on the app/function, the file preview list disappears. Sure I could try to find out how the app stores the files for that certain function but knowing which actual files would help a lot. I only found out by chance that there was a right click function on the app feature which would do a Preview or Clean for that function! But that feature is not at all obvious.

So, it would be very useful to just keep the App (and subsection) mapped to the relevant already-previewed files list in the right hand pane. Then I could see that, say, the Edge cache was responsible for multiple GB and importantly the exact location, so I could use symlinks or registry changes etc. to move them away from C: drive.

BleachBit version: 
5.0.2
Your operating system: 
Windows 11

andrew

Sat, 02/07/2026 - 10:29

What do you think of this video demo of the next-generation BleachBit GUI?

The new GUI does not yet have a place for the cleaner descriptions that you are asking to not show in the right pane, so the preview results do not disappear. That's what you're asking for.

The new GUI does allow sorting by file size. Multiple files can be selected, and right clicking on them shows these options: copy path, open file location, and always skip this file (add to allowlist/whitelist).

---
Andrew, lead developer

mr-b

Sat, 02/07/2026 - 11:10

Tx for the reply - looks interesting.

Could the descriptions of each cleaner function could be moved into a hover-help function or a third pane? Note I'm *not* asking for the descriptions not to be shown - it's only that it's an either/or situation currently.

I'd think that one set of users are not bothered about individual files, they just want to know which app & function is exhibiting poor housekeeping by using up larger amounts of disk space and then what they can do about it. The current rolled up per-function file size view in the left pane shows that really well. Then the majority of users should be able to assess the impact of cleaning files associated with a certain function i.e. one may be happy to delete cache files but not at all happy about deleting cookies. It just needs the per-function Preview/Clean task to be made more visible. This is where the per-app awareness of BB scores over WizTree. The new UI does that but I can't see the rolled-up per-function file size value. Counting up individual Bytes values with many digits is not fun.

However another set of users may prefer to know about each function's individual files as well. I think the right pane columns are a good improvement making for much easier readability, and especially since sorting by size is available. But I suspect it might be overwhelming for many users if the left pane rolled up per-function is lost.

So, if the app functions' descriptions and the rolled-up per-function size kept then the new UI will be great!