DropSort

A small Windows desktop app that keeps the Downloads folder from turning into a landfill. It watches the folder, waits until a download has really finished, then unpacks archives, moves files into folders by rules and expires what nobody touched for weeks — all visible and undoable from an Explorer-like UI.

What it does

• Watches the top level of the Downloads folder (or any folder); subfolders are never sorted. A file is only handled once it is no longer locked and its size has been stable for a few seconds, so half-finished downloads are left alone. Partial-download extensions (.crdownload, .part, …) are ignored by a rule that comes first.
• Rules — an ordered list of glob patterns (*.pdf; invoice-*) with an action:
  • Move to a folder (subfolder of Downloads or an absolute path; name clashes get a (2) suffix),
  • Extract a .zip into a folder (a single top-level folder inside is not double-wrapped; entries pointing outside the target are refused), then recycle / keep / park the archive, with a Windows notification that opens the unpacked folder on click,
  • Delete (recycle bin), or Ignore. The first matching rule wins. A tester on the Rules page shows what a given file name would hit.
• Retention — loose files lying directly in Downloads are cleaned up after N days (global limit, 0 = keep). A subfolder is cleaned up only when a rule targets it and sets its own limit (the defaults do that for Installers and Torrents); nothing else in subfolders is ever touched. Recycle bin by default. Runs hourly; the Settings page previews what would go and can run it now.
• Browser — breadcrumbs, back/forward/up, filter, the rule that would apply to each file; open, reveal in Explorer, apply rule now, unpack, recycle, copy path.
• Activity — every move, unpack, recycle and expiry, with Undo for moves.
• Dry run — log what would happen without touching anything. The first start runs in dry run until you untick it in Settings, so nothing is rearranged before you have seen the rules. Pause stops sorting and cleanup. A settings file that cannot be read switches watching off instead of falling back to defaults.
• Tray icon (open, tidy now, exit), close to tray, start with Windows hidden.
• Logs page — live log with filters and the daily files with a tail view.
• System / Light / Dark theme (Ctrl+Shift+L cycles, System follows Windows live), Ctrl+K command palette, keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+T tidy now, Ctrl+1…5 pages, Ctrl+F filter, F5 refresh, Alt+←/→ and Backspace in the browser, Delete recycles).

Where things live

Build and run

Requires the .NET 10 SDK. The self-update library (TomLabs.AutoUpdate.Avalonia) comes from nuget.org.

dotnet run --project src/DropSort

Portable single-file release build (what CI publishes):

dotnet publish src/DropSort -c Release -r win-x64 -o publish

DropSort.exe --minimized starts hidden in the tray (this is what "Start with Windows" registers). DROPSORT_UPDATE_MANIFEST=https://host/latest.json points the updater at a test manifest. DROPSORT_DATA_DIR=<folder> keeps settings, history and logs in that folder instead of %APPDATA% / %LOCALAPPDATA% (portable use, or a second instance for testing).

Release

Bump <VersionPrefix> in src/DropSort/DropSort.csproj, add a section to CHANGELOG.md, tag vX.Y.Z. The Azure Pipeline publishes every push to master to the nightly channel and every v* tag to the stable channel of the TomLabs app store; the app updates itself from there. Regenerate the icon with pwsh tools/Make-Icons.ps1.

Notes

• Only .zip is unpacked (built-in System.IO.Compression); .7z / .rar are moved to Archives by the default rules.
• Retention judges a file by the later of its creation and last-write time, and an unpacked folder by its creation time, so old timestamps stored inside an archive do not make it expire early.
• Watching a drive root or the user profile itself is refused.