03 · Utility Forge · Files
How do I organise Downloads without losing anything?
Safely organise messy folders such as Downloads, with a preview and an undo.
Tidy sorts the files directly inside one folder into category folders by extension. It shows the complete move plan first, detects name collisions, moves nothing until you approve that exact plan, records every move in a journal and can move files back. It never deletes, copies or overwrites a file.
Worked example · illustrative values
The question-to-answer path Tidy follows, with illustrative values. Tidy is implemented and tested internally but not released, so nothing here can be downloaded yet.
How do I organise Downloads without losing anything?
Answer Organised on your explicit go. Nothing deleted or overwritten, and every move recorded so it can be reversed.
Capabilities
A complete plan before anything moves
Every file that would move and where, every folder that would be created, and every item left alone with its reason. Making the plan changes nothing.
Collision detection, never an overwrite
A file whose name is already taken in the destination is held back, or given a free name such as "holiday (2).jpg" if you choose. Even a name taken after planning cannot be overwritten, because the rename itself refuses.
Approval of the exact plan
Applying requires the plan you reviewed. If anything in the folder changed since, Tidy shows the new plan instead of applying the old one.
Careful about what it touches
Subfolders, links, cloud placeholders, hidden and system files, unfinished downloads, temporary files and unusual names are left where they are. Each file is checked again immediately before it moves.
Journal and undo
Each move is recorded before and after it happens. Undo moves a file back only if it is the same, unchanged file and its original name is free; anything else is reported as a conflict and left alone.
Desktop application and command line
The desktop app shows the plan in Will move, Need attention and Left alone tabs, asks for confirmation and keeps a History page; the command line does the same for scripts, with JSON output.
Explanation
Downloads fills up with installers, invoices, photos and archives until finding anything takes longer than downloading it again. The usual fixes are risky: a “cleanup” tool that decides what to delete, a script found online that moves everything with -Force and silently replaces files with the same name, or an afternoon of dragging files around with no record of where anything went. The guide Organise Downloads safely without a cleanup utility shows how to do the job carefully by hand in PowerShell.
Tidy follows the order the Blueprint requires for anything that changes files: preview, validation, explicit execution, a journal, and undo where it is technically possible.
Documents, Images, Videos, Audio, Archives or Installers inside the same folder, and checks every destination name. Unrecognised files stay put unless you ask for an Other folder. Scripts and shortcuts are deliberately never filed beside documents.On the command line a session looks like this:
PS> tidy plan "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads"
Plan for C:\Users\me\Downloads
Plan ID: 6101670615e4a9b240c6e35e8810fc71
Folders to create: Documents, Installers
Moves (2 ready, 1 blocked):
m0001 Invoice 2026.pdf -> Documents\Invoice 2026.pdf
x m0002 holiday.jpg -> Images\holiday.jpg
blocked: Images already has a file named holiday.jpg. Nothing will be overwritten, so this file stays where it is.
m0003 setup.exe -> Installers\setup.exe
Left where they are (2):
Images - folder (not entered)
big.iso.crdownload - download in progress
This was a preview: nothing was changed.That example comes from the command-line documentation.
Tidy’s safety model is documented with its limits, and the product page should say them too:
invoice.pdf.exe is an .exe and goes to Installers, never Documents, but Tidy never checks that a .pdf really is a PDF.| Part | State |
|---|---|
Engine, journal, undo and tidy command line |
Implemented, tested on Windows CI |
Tidy.exe desktop application |
Implemented, tested internally |
| Portable ZIP packaging and verifier | Implemented; unsigned internal builds only |
| Signing decision and public release | Open. Nothing is downloadable |
Internal packages have been run only on Windows 11 x64.
Datasheet
Implemented and tested internally. There is no public release and nothing to download yet.
| Rev | Part | Status |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Scan, classification and move planner Extension rules, collision detection and a plan identifier that changes whenever the folder does. | Implemented |
| A2 | Journal, recovery and undo Private per-user journal of the last 100 operations; interrupted runs are recognised and checked. | Implemented |
| A3 | Command line (tidy) scan, plan, apply with an approval ID, history, show, undo and recover. | Implemented |
| A4 | WPF desktop application (Tidy.exe) Scan, review, confirm, result and History with undo. Tested internally; not released. | Implemented |
| A5 | Packaging and release verification Reproducible portable ZIPs with SHA-256 sums, a manifest, an independent verifier and tamper tests. Every package so far is an unsigned internal build. | Implemented |
| C1 | Release signing decision and public release Nothing is published or downloadable. No code-signing certificate exists; an unsigned Tidy release would need its own policy decision. | Planned |
Quick start
No build is published yet. Until the first public release, Tidy is built from source with the .NET SDK pinned in global.json.
Needs access to the source repository, which is private during development.
cd apps/tidy && dotnet build Tidy.Engine.slnx -c ReleaseRead-only. Prints every move, every blocked move with its reason, and the plan ID you approve with.
tidy plan "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads"Re-plans the folder and applies only if the plan ID still matches. Nothing is applied without --approve.
tidy apply --folder "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads" --approve <plan-id>The operation ID comes from the apply output or tidy history.
tidy undo <operation-id>Documentation
| Security and privacy | Safety, security and privacy |
Release history
No releases published yet
Every release will appear here with its version, date, checksums and notes. Published versions are immutable.
Guides
How-to · 8 min · updated
Sort a cluttered Downloads folder into category folders with PowerShell, without losing or overwriting anything: inventory the files, build and review a move plan, catch name collisions, confirm each move, keep a record and undo it if needed.
FAQ
No. It has no code path that deletes a file, and every move is a rename that Windows refuses if the target name exists. The only thing it removes is a category folder it created itself, and only when that folder is empty after an undo.
No, and Tidy says so. Undo moves a file back only if it is still the same, unchanged file where Tidy put it and its original name is free. If you renamed, edited or moved the file, or something else now has its old name, that file is reported as a conflict and left exactly where it is. The journal keeps the most recent 100 operations.
Tidy checks every file's identity before and after it moves, and undo depends on that. Cloud-synchronised folders, network shares and FAT32, exFAT or ReFS drives cannot give it the guarantees it needs, so it refuses them instead of working less safely.
No. It sorts by the extension of the name only and never opens, reads or runs a file. To find out what a file really is, use FileScope or the manual inspection guide.
Not yet. The engine, command line and desktop app are implemented and tested internally, and the packaging pipeline produces unsigned internal builds, but nothing is published. A public release will be published here with SHA-256 checksums and will say before download whether it is signed. Free signing is being evaluated; an unsigned release of this product would first need its own policy decision.