Deltempo Docs — Windows Cleaner & NT Memory Guide

1. GPU Shader Cache Cleaning

Modern DirectX, Vulkan, and OpenGL games pre-compile shaders to reduce in-game compilation stalls. Graphics driver updates frequently leave obsolete bytecode caches on disk that are never reclaimed by standard Windows tools.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\D3DSCache — DirectX 11 & 12 unified shader bytecode
%LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\DXCache & GLCache — NVIDIA proprietary caches
%LOCALAPPDATA%\AMD\DxCache — AMD Radeon Adrenalin compiled shaders
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Intel\ShaderCache — Intel Arc & Iris Xe shader cache

Safety Mechanism: The recent file safety shield protects active shader pipelines written within the past 24 hours to prevent in-game recompilation hitches.

2. The 5-Tier Safety Classification Engine

Every discovered path is evaluated against protection policies, canonicalized to eliminate directory traversal, and classified into a deterministic safety tier before touching disk:

Tier 0: Protected (Score 0)

System32, SysWOW64, WinSxS, bootmgr, user personal folders (Documents, Desktop, Pictures), developer credentials (.ssh, AWS, GPG), browser login databases (passwords, cookies), and messaging authentication tokens. Never modified.

Tier 1: Safe (Score 90–100)

DirectX/GPU shaders, Delivery Optimization cached chunks, Windows Update downloads, driver installation leftovers, and crash dumps. Safe for routine cleanup.

Tier 2: Low Risk (Score 70–89)

Downloaded standalone installers older than 48 hours located in standard temp and staging download directories.

Tier 3: Review Required (Score 30–69)

Active temporary files modified within the past 24 hours or executables discovered in non-standard temp folders. Preserved in automated runs.

Tier 4: Unknown (Score < 30)

Conservative fallback for unclassified files: permanently preserved without modification.

3. Native Windows NT Kernel Memory Architecture

Deltempo interfaces directly with native NT kernel memory managers rather than forcing generic process termination:

Standby List Flush: Calls NtSetSystemInformation with SystemMemoryListInformation (class 80) to reclaim pages left in standby cache by terminated applications.
Working Set Trimming: Calls EmptyWorkingSet across running user processes using SeProfileSingleProcessPrivilege.
File Cache Reset: Calls SetSystemFileCacheSize to flush excessive filesystem working set pages.
Immunity Shield: System-critical processes (csrss, dwm, explorer, lsass, services, WindowsDefender) are protected from working set reduction.

4. Terminal CLI Automation Reference

Both Deltempo.exe and deltempo_cli.exe offer synchronous CLI execution with deterministic exit codes (0 = Success, 1 = Error, 2 = Update Available):

# 1. Simulate cleanup without touching disk; emit machine-readable JSON (--json)

> deltempo clean --dry-run --json

{
  "dryRun": true,
  "safetyShieldActive": true,
  "totalReclaimableBytes": 8208188,
  "formattedTotal": "7.8 MB",
  "totalFiles": 50,
  "categories": [ /* 26 live-captured scopes */
   "User Temp & Scratchpad": 6.5 MB / 26 files,
   "DirectX & GPU Shader Caches": 260.0 KB / 5 files,
   "Windows Store Apps & UWP Caches": 0.9 MB / 11 files, …
  ]
}

# 2. Execute verified live cleanup across temporary files

> deltempo clean temp

# 3. Output structured system memory and storage telemetry in JSON

> deltempo status --json

{
  "isAdmin": false,
  "drive": { /* C: (OS) \u2014 76.1 GB free of 170.6 GB (44.6% Free) */ },
  "memory": { /* 15.6 GB total | 5.0 GB available | 68.0% used */ }
}

# 4. Check for official releases

> deltempo update check

# 5. Apply official release update safely

> deltempo update

# 6. Find byte-level duplicate files safely

> deltempo duplicates "D:\Projects"

# 7. Manage Windows VSS restore points & shadow copies

> deltempo vss list

# 8. Configure scheduled automated maintenance

> deltempo schedule install --daily

5. File Lock Transparency (Win32 Restart Manager)

When a file candidate is locked by an active process, Deltempo avoids blind failure or aggressive process termination. Instead, it queries the native Windows Restart Manager (rstrtmgr.dll):

Lock Owner Identification: Registers a temporary Restart Manager session via RmStartSession and queries holding process IDs with RmGetList.
3-Pass Adaptive Retry: Applies exponential backoff delays (25ms, 75ms, 150ms) to accommodate transient file locks from antivirus scanners or file flushers.
Non-Destructive Fail-Closed: If the file remains locked, Deltempo gracefully marks the item as skipped with lock details in the audit ledger, preserving system stability.

6. Volume Scan Coordination & Release Verification

Deltempo organizes filesystem operations with drive-aware parallelism and strict verification standards:

VolumeScanCoordinator: Partitions directory enumeration into per-physical-volume queues. SSDs run concurrent high-IOPS worker pools, while HDDs execute serialized traversals to prevent mechanical head thrashing.
Automated Verification Suite: Full unit, integration, memory leak, and adversarial filesystem security tests (more than a thousand of them, count published on the repository badge) pass with zero warnings before any tag is released.
100% Self-Contained: Zero runtime dependencies, zero external DLL requirements, and zero registry bloat.

Deltempo Architecture & Reference