If you’ve been using BleachBit for a while, you know the drill — it’s one of the best free tools for stripping junk off your Windows or Linux machine, but the last few updates haven’t exactly set the world on fire. Version 6 changes that. It’s a proper major release, and it addresses the one thing that’s frustrated users for years.
The Cookie Problem Is Finally Fixed
Here’s the scenario every BleachBit user knows too well: you run a clean-up, your browser feels snappy again, and then you realise you’ve been logged out of every site you use. Your banking portal, your work apps, your email — gone. That was the trade-off of aggressive cookie deletion, and it was annoying enough that some people stopped using BleachBit altogether.
Version 6 introduces a Cookie Manager that solves this directly. Before running a clean-up, you can select exactly which cookies to keep — across all your browsers — so the ones tied to your active logins are preserved while the tracking and third-party cookies get wiped. It’s the kind of feature that should have been there years ago, but better late than never.
To set it up, click the menu button (top left), choose Preferences, then Cookies. Select the cookies you want to keep and click Close. BleachBit will respect those choices every time it runs.
Deeper Browser Cleaning Across the Board
Beyond cookies, BleachBit 6 has gone much further into the guts of modern browsers. For Chromium-based browsers — Chrome, Edge, Brave, and the like — it now cleans component and extension caches, crash reports, and search suggestions that previous versions left behind.
Firefox and Firefox-based browsers get similar treatment, with new cleaning targets including website storage, permissions data, session backups, and even favicons. Small things, but they add up.
Two new browsers have also been added to BleachBit’s sidebar: Vivaldi and the newer Zen browser. This means you get granular control over what gets deleted from those apps, rather than a blunt all-or-nothing wipe.
Expert Mode for Power Users
If you’re comfortable with what BleachBit does and find the constant warnings and confirmation prompts more hindrance than help, there’s now an Expert Mode to clear the clutter. Go to Menu → Preferences → General and tick the Expert Mode option.
Expert Mode also removes the warning symbols that BleachBit places on sensitive options, giving you a cleaner interface if you already know what each setting does.
Wipe Empty Space — Renamed for Clarity
The option previously called Overwrite Free Space has been renamed to Wipe Empty Space. Functionally identical — it securely erases traces of previously deleted files so they can’t be recovered — but the new name makes it clearer what it actually does. BleachBit now also shows a warning before you use it, which is a sensible addition given how long the operation can take on larger drives.
Small Touches That Add Up
On first launch, BleachBit 6 runs a quick Font Check to make sure its interface text is rendering clearly on your display. It’s a minor thing, but it signals a broader push toward making BleachBit feel less like a tool built only for enthusiasts and more like something anyone can confidently use.
How to Run a Clean-Up
The core workflow hasn’t changed, which is a good thing:
- Tick the data you want to remove from the programs listed in the left-hand sidebar — including options for System, Windows Explorer, and Windows Defender
- Click Preview to scan first and see exactly how much space you’ll recover before committing
- Click Clean to proceed, or Abort to cancel at any point during the process
Worth the Update?
Absolutely. BleachBit 6 is the release that brings this tool back into serious contention. The cookie manager alone is enough reason to update — it removes the biggest friction point that’s pushed users toward rival cleaners. Grab it free at bleachbit.org. Requires Windows 10, Windows 11, or Linux.
