NEW ControlUp Disk cleanup script that actually asks the user what to delete

Every admin has run a disk cleanup script. Almost none of them ask the user first, and that’s exactly the gap this one fills.

In this episode, Chris Twiest walks Douglas Brown through a new interactive disk cleanup utility, created by Sebastien Perusat and now baked directly into the product. No separate install, no extra agent. You import it from the script library, and it just runs.

What makes it different: it’s user-interactable. Instead of silently wiping temp folders from the system context, the end user gets a pop-up showing how much space is available to reclaim, then picks what to clean — recycle bin, temporary files, browser cache — confirms, and gets a completion message with the exact amount freed. It looks and feels like a full GUI tool, but it’s just a script generating that interface on the endpoint.

That user context is the whole point. A system-level cleanup script usually can’t reach the user’s recycle bin because of profile permissions, so it reports “done” while gigabytes are still sitting there. And nobody wants a script silently nuking their browser cache — and the saved passwords with it. Giving the user the choice solves both problems. The original system-level script is still there; the two are meant to be used together.

Chris also demos:

• Running it on demand from the help desk against a device flagged for low disk space
• Triggering it automatically from an alert
• Full macOS support — same pop-up flow, same experience
• Results written to a data index so you can view the raw output or visualize cleanup activity (a gallery dashboard for it is coming in a few weeks)
• Results also written back as a device event, visible right on the device timeline
• Full script source visible and editable — rebrand it in your own colors, add or remove cleanup targets (Chris’s tip: paste it into Claude or ChatGPT and describe what you want changed)

One caveat worth knowing: because the action runs in user context, it’s bound by user permissions. That’s why the system-level script still has a job.

It’s available now. Go to the script library, import it, and have some fun.

Big thanks to Sebastian Peresat for building and sharing this one — find him on LinkedIn or in the community.