pc-powershelltools

Windows maintenance, repair, storage analysis, health reporting and network diagnostics. One PowerShell module, with a GUI on top and a scriptable CLI underneath.

Disclaimer These tools are provided as-is. I am not liable for any system issues or damages resulting from their use.

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Install and run, in one command

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/likeBloodMoon/pc-powershelltools/v0.5.0/install.ps1 | iex

That installs PC Tools, adds a pctools command, and opens the window.

Note the version in that URL. It is not main, on purpose: pinning to a tag means you run a specific, reviewed release rather than whatever was pushed most recently.

What the installer actually does:

1. Installs PCTools from the PowerShell Gallery, where the package is signed and PowerShellGet verifies it.
2. If the Gallery is unreachable, downloads the release archive and its SHA256SUMS, verifies the hash, and refuses to continue on a mismatch. There is no switch to skip that check.
3. Drops a pctools command into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps, which is already on PATH on Windows 10 and 11 - so no PATH edit and no elevation.
4. Opens the window.

The honest limitation: step 1 runs a script fetched over TLS from a pinned URL, which you are trusting on the strength of that connection. Everything after it is signature- or hash-verified. If you would rather verify the first step too, use the manual path below.

Without the bootstrapper

Install-Module PCTools -Scope CurrentUser
Start-PCTools

The Gallery package now carries the GUI as well as the commands, so this is a complete install. Update-Module PCTools keeps it current.

Verifying everything yourself

$version = 'v0.5.0'
$base    = "https://github.com/likeBloodMoon/pc-powershelltools/releases/download/$version"
Invoke-WebRequest "$base/pc-tools-$($version.TrimStart('v')).zip" -OutFile pc-tools.zip
Invoke-WebRequest "$base/SHA256SUMS" -OutFile SHA256SUMS

$actual   = (Get-FileHash pc-tools.zip -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLower()
$expected = (Select-String -Path SHA256SUMS -Pattern 'pc-tools-.*\.zip').Line.Split(' ')[0]
if ($actual -ne $expected) { throw 'Checksum mismatch - do not run this file.' }

Expand-Archive pc-tools.zip -DestinationPath .\pc-tools
.\pc-tools\pc-tools.ps1

Or clone the repository and run .\pc-tools.ps1.

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Three ways to use it

pctools                                  # the window
pctools -ProfileName Quick               # run and exit, with an exit code
Import-Module PCTools; Get-PCHealthReport # every action as an ordinary command

The module is the product. The GUI and the CLI are two faces on it, so anything the window can do, a console session or a scheduled task can do too.

The command line

Invoke-PCTools (aliased as pctools) is built for scripts and scheduled tasks:

pctools -ProfileName Quick -Json           # JSON on stdout
pctools -ProfileName Recommended -Report Html -Quiet
pctools -Diagnose                          # network verdict

Exit codes, so it composes:

Code	Meaning
0	every action succeeded
1	at least one warning, nothing failed
2	at least one action failed
3010	succeeded, but a restart is required

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What it does

Area	Commands
Clean up	Temp files, Recycle Bin, browser caches, Windows Update cache, Delivery Optimization, crash dumps, thumbnails, Prefetch, Windows.old
Analyse storage	Free space per drive with a pressure grade, and a fast scan for the largest folders and files
Repair	DISM component store, SFC system files, CHKDSK, restore points
Diagnose the network	Layered connectivity verdict, traceroute, path MTU, Wi-Fi signal, throughput, DNS resolver benchmark
Configure the network	Static IP, DNS presets, DHCP, Winsock/TCP-IP reset, and Home/Work adapter profiles
Report health	System info, SMART disk health, battery wear, boot time and what slows it, crash and error history
Check security posture	Defender, firewall, BitLocker, UAC, SmartScreen, pending updates - read-only, always
Control startup	Every autostart from Run keys, Startup folders and logon tasks, reversibly disabled
Manage services	Startup types, with a hard refusal list for the ones that break a machine
Update software	Windows Update over the COM API, winget upgrade, problem-device detection
Remove bloatware	Preinstalled apps, from a curated allowlist only
Automate	Scheduled maintenance, run history and trends, HTML/JSON/text/CSV reports
Extend	Drop-in custom actions usable in your own profiles

The full reference is in docs/COMMANDS.md, generated from the module's own help.

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Using the GUI

Start-PCTools                       # dark theme, dashboard
Start-PCTools -Theme Light -Page Network
Start-PCTools -Elevate              # relaunch as administrator

• Dashboard - a health score out of 100 with the reasons behind it, disk space, what the last run reclaimed, and when the next scheduled one is due.
• Maintenance - pick a profile, press Preview to see exactly what would run without changing anything, then Run maintenance.
• Storage - drives with a free-space pressure grade, the reclaims, and a scan for the largest folders and files.
• Health - read-only reports. Nothing on this page changes the machine.
• Network - a verdict naming the failing layer ("DNS is not resolving") rather than a table of pass/fail rows to interpret yourself.
• Software - Windows updates, application updates, device problems, and one-click scheduled maintenance.
• Preferences - checkboxes that reflect what Windows currently has set. Clearing one restores the Windows default.
• Log - everything the session has done.

Long-running work happens on a background runspace, so the window stays responsive during a DISM or SFC run.

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Using the module

Import-Module PCTools
Get-Command -Module PCTools
Get-Help Invoke-PCMaintenance -Full

Preview before committing to anything:

Invoke-PCMaintenance -ProfileName Recommended -WhatIf

Run it for real:

Invoke-PCMaintenance -ProfileName Quick |
    Format-Table Action, Status, FreedDisplay, Detail

How is this machine doing:

$health = Get-PCHealthReport
$health.Score       # 0-100
$health.Findings | Format-Table Severity, Area, Message, Command

Where did the disk space go:

Get-PCDiskSpace | Format-Table Drive, FreeDisplay, PercentFree, Pressure
(Get-PCDiskUsage -Path C:\ -Top 20).LargestFolders | Format-Table SizeDisplay, Path

Diagnose a network problem:

$report = Get-PCNetworkReport
$report.Verdict.Verdict   # e.g. 'DNS is not resolving'
$report.Verdict.Advice
$report | Export-PCReport -Format Html

What starts with Windows, and switch something off reversibly:

Get-PCStartupItem | Where-Object Enabled | Format-Table Name, Source, Command
Disable-PCStartupItem -Name 'Spotify' -WhatIf
Enable-PCStartupItem -Name 'Spotify'      # back on

Keep it maintained without remembering to:

Register-PCScheduledMaintenance -ProfileName Weekly -Frequency Weekly
Get-PCScheduledMaintenance | Format-Table TaskName, NextRunTime, LastResult
Get-PCHistory -Summary

Maintenance profiles

Profile	What it does
Quick	Reclaim disk space. No repairs, no restart.
Recommended	Quick, plus the Windows Update cache and a health scan. Restore point first.
Full	Adds component-store and system-file repair. Can run for an hour; expect a restart.
Storage	The deeper reclaims: update and delivery caches, crash dumps, thumbnails.
Health	Read-only. Reports, changes nothing.
Weekly	The sensible default for a schedule. No restart.
NetworkRepair	Diagnose, then apply the standard network fixes. Requires a restart.

Prefetch cleanup, the network stack reset, removing Windows.old, clearing event logs and uninstalling apps are deliberately not in any profile. Each gives up something that cannot be got back, so each has to be asked for by name.

Your own profiles

{
  "profiles": [
    {
      "name": "Friday",
      "description": "What I actually run on Fridays",
      "restorePoint": false,
      "actions": [
        { "action": "Clear-PCTempFile" },
        { "action": "Clear-PCBrowserCache", "parameters": { "Browser": ["Chrome"] } }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Import-PCConfiguration -Path .\my-profiles.json
Invoke-PCMaintenance -ProfileName Friday -WhatIf

Action names are validated at import, so a typo fails there rather than partway through a run.

Your own actions

Write a function that returns a PCTools.ActionResult, save it as *.PCAction.ps1 under %LOCALAPPDATA%\PCTools\extensions, and it can be named in a profile like any built-in:

# %LOCALAPPDATA%\PCTools\extensions\backup.PCAction.ps1
function Invoke-PCMyBackup {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    param([string]$Destination = 'D:\Backups')
    Invoke-PCAction -Name 'Invoke-PCMyBackup' -Body {
        # Invoke-PCAction handles the timing, logging and failure shape.
        @{ Detail = "copied to $Destination" }
    }
}

Register-PCExtension -PassThru
Get-PCExtension | Format-Table Name, Loaded, File

Invoke-PCMaintenance -Action 'Invoke-PCMyBackup'   # or name it in a profile

Extension actions run through Invoke-PCMaintenance and profiles, not as top-level commands. They are loaded into the module's scope so they can use Invoke-PCAction and the other internals - which is what makes their results the same shape as a built-in's - and a module cannot export a function after it has finished loading.

An extension is ordinary PowerShell running with your rights. Nothing sandboxes it. It cannot silently replace a built-in command - that is refused - and a file that does not parse is skipped rather than taking the others down with it. But load only extensions you wrote or would be willing to read.

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Safety

• Every mutating action supports -WhatIf. The GUI's Preview button is the same code path that performs the work, so the plan cannot drift from the action.
• Restore point as a gate. Profiles that repair or reset take a checkpoint first, and abort if one cannot be created. Override with -SkipRestorePoint.
• Allowlists, not blocklists, for the destructive commands. Set-PCServiceStartup refuses a fixed list of services that break a machine. Remove-PCAppxPackage will only remove preinstalled apps on a curated list. Neither has a -Force to talk it round; Set-Service and Remove-AppxPackage are still there if you genuinely mean it.
• Security settings are reported, never changed. Get-PCSecurityStatus tells you the firewall is off. It will not turn it on: a maintenance tool that reconfigures your antivirus is indistinguishable from malware.
• Reset-PCNetworkStack is high impact and says so. Resetting Winsock removes third-party layered service providers, which is what breaks some VPN clients until they are reinstalled. Use -SkipWinsock to avoid that.
• Failures are reported, not swallowed. DISM, SFC, CHKDSK and winget exit codes are interpreted; a failed repair does not look like a successful one.
• No telemetry, ever. Nothing here reports home. The only network traffic is what a diagnostic explicitly probes and what an update command downloads.
• Everything is logged to %LOCALAPPDATA%\PCTools\logs, rotated at 2 MB.

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Speed

v0.5 measured the hot paths for the first time and fixed what the numbers showed - mostly independent I/O that was being done one item at a time. Module import is about a third faster, eight concurrent probes take the time of one rather than eight, and a path-MTU probe converges in at most six rounds instead of eleven sequential ones. The method and the figures are in docs/PERFORMANCE.md; reproduce them with:

./build/Measure-Performance.ps1
./build/Measure-Performance.ps1 -Baseline ./build/benchmark.json

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Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11
• Windows PowerShell 5.1 (the GUI uses WinForms). The module also loads under PowerShell 7.
• Administrator rights for repair, network and system-cache actions. The shell runs without them and offers a Restart as admin button; actions that need elevation fail with a clear message rather than a cascade of access-denied errors.

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Development

./build/Invoke-Build.ps1 -Task All       # Pester suite, then PSScriptAnalyzer
./build/Invoke-Build.ps1 -Task Test
./build/Invoke-Build.ps1 -Task Compile   # merge the module into one .psm1
./build/Invoke-Build.ps1 -Task Docs      # regenerate docs/COMMANDS.md
./build/Invoke-Build.ps1 -Task Release   # stage out/ and write SHA256SUMS
./build/Measure-Performance.ps1          # benchmark the hot paths

CI runs the suite on both Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7. Releases are built from a tag, checksummed, and Authenticode-signed when a signing certificate is configured.

Layout:

install.ps1       the one-command bootstrapper
src/PCTools/      the module - Public/ by domain, Private/ for helpers, Shell/ for the GUI
tests/            Pester: syntax, module contract, unit, parallel, safety, compile, shell
build/            Test/Analyze/Compile/Docs/Release, and the benchmark harness
docs/             generated command reference and performance notes

The shipped module is compiled: -Task Compile merges the sources into a single .psm1 so an import parses one file instead of sixty. tests/Compile.Tests.ps1 asserts the compiled module exports exactly what the source does, so the two cannot drift.

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The older tools

pc-cleanuptool.ps1, pc-netdiag.ps1 and gui-framework.ps1 are the original single-file tools. They still work and are still shipped, but they are frozen: bug fixes only. MIGRATION.md maps every old function to its replacement.

quickspeedboost.ps1 is kept for reference, but most of what it does is counterproductive: EmptyWorkingSet on every process forces those pages straight back off disk, and purging the standby list discards the cache Windows built to make things fast. Killing dwm.exe is the sharpest edge in the repository. The parts worth having - temp cleanup, DNS flush, a safe Explorer restart - are in the module as Clear-PCTempFile, Clear-PCDnsCache and Restart-PCExplorer.

A note on irm | iex

Earlier versions told you to pipe a script straight from the main branch into iex as Administrator. Those commands still work and are kept so existing links do not break, but main is whatever was pushed to it most recently. If you use them, pin to a tag:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/likeBloodMoon/pc-powershelltools/v0.5.0/pc-cleanuptool.ps1 | iex
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/likeBloodMoon/pc-powershelltools/v0.5.0/pc-netdiag.ps1 | iex

The installer at the top of this file is the recommended path: it is pinned, and it verifies what it downloads.

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Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md.

Suggestions and contributions are welcome.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.