Everything you need to
master PC AutoPilot

• Windows 10 (version 1903 or later) or Windows 11
• 4 GB RAM minimum; 8 GB recommended
• 200 MB free disk space for installation
• Internet connection required for license activation and AutoPilot AI
• Administrator rights recommended (required for some cleanup features)
• .NET Framework 4.8+ (included in Windows 10/11 by default)

1. Download the PCAutoPilot_Setup installer from pcautopilot.com.
2. Double-click the installer. If Windows SmartScreen appears, click "More info" then "Run anyway" — this is normal for newly released software while we finalize our code signing certificate.
3. Choose your install location. The default is C:\Users\[You]\AppData\Local\PCAutoPilot — no admin rights needed for this path.
4. Click Install. Setup takes about 30 seconds.
5. PC AutoPilot launches automatically after installation.

When PC AutoPilot opens for the first time, you'll see the First-Run dialog. You have three options:

• Start Free Trial — 14 days of full access, no credit card required. Days only count down when you actually open the app.
• Activate License — If you've already purchased, click here and paste your license key.
• Continue as Guest — Limited access; most features require activation.

Your remaining trial days are always visible in the top-right corner of the app window.

PC AutoPilot has two UI modes you can switch between at any time. They control the same underlying features — Power Mode just exposes more settings and detail.

To switch modes: go to Settings → Appearance → UI Mode and choose Simple or Power. The app restarts briefly to apply the change.

The fastest way to see PC AutoPilot in action: navigate to Dashboard → Run Quick Cleanup. This scans and removes temporary files, browser cache, and recent file history — typically freeing 500 MB to 5 GB in under 60 seconds.

1. Click Dashboard in the left navigation sidebar.
2. Click the Run Quick Cleanup button.
3. Review the scan results — you'll see exactly what will be removed and how much space is recovered.
4. Click Clean Selected to confirm. Done.

Macros let you record any sequence of mouse clicks and keystrokes, then replay them with one click or on a schedule.

1. Go to Automation in the left navigation sidebar.
2. Click New Macro → Record.
3. PC AutoPilot minimizes to the system tray. Perform the actions you want to record at normal pace.
4. Press F9 to stop recording, or click the floating Stop button.
5. Give your macro a name and click Save.

Any saved macro can be set to run automatically on a schedule.

1. Open the macro you want to schedule from the Automation list.
2. Click the Schedule tab.
3. Choose a frequency: Once, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or On Login.
4. Set the time and confirm.

Scheduled tasks run silently in the background even when PC AutoPilot is minimized to the system tray. All completed runs are logged in the Activity Log.

Each macro supports one or more trigger types:

PC AutoPilot can automatically sort files in your Downloads folder and Desktop into categorized subfolders based on file type. Files are moved — never deleted.

To enable: go to File Manager → Auto-Organize, toggle the switch on, and choose which folders to watch.

Smart Backup copies your important files to a destination of your choice — an external drive, network folder, or another local drive.

1. Go to File Manager → Smart Backup.
2. Choose your source folders (Documents, Desktop, Pictures, etc.).
3. Choose a destination — must be a different drive from the source.
4. Set a schedule (daily backup is recommended).
5. Click Enable.

The Duplicate Finder scans a folder for identical files — matched by content, not just by filename — and lets you review and remove them.

1. Go to File Manager → Duplicate Finder.
2. Choose a folder to scan.
3. Review the results — the original and each duplicate are shown side-by-side with file size and last-modified date.
4. Select which copies to remove, then click Delete Selected.

The Privacy & Cleanup tool removes clutter that slows down your PC and exposes your file activity:

• Temp files — Windows %TEMP% folder and system temp files
• Browser cache — Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Opera cache and cookies (you choose which browsers and which data types)
• Recent file history — Windows Recent Items list (your filenames won't appear in Open dialogs)
• Recycle Bin — Empty the Windows Recycle Bin with one click

To run a cleanup: go to Privacy & Cleanup, select what to scan, click Scan, review the results preview, then click Clean Selected.

The System Monitor dashboard gives you a live view of your PC's health:

• CPU usage — current percentage and core count
• RAM usage — used GB vs. total installed
• Disk health — free space remaining on each drive
• Battery — percentage and charging status (laptops only)

PC AutoPilot sends a Windows toast notification when:

• CPU stays above 90% for 30 seconds or more
• RAM usage exceeds 90%
• Any disk drops below 10% free space

Go to Settings → Automation to enable automatic background maintenance:

• Auto-clean — Runs Privacy & Cleanup on a schedule (daily, weekly, or custom) without any prompts
• Auto-organize — Automatically sorts new files dropped into watched folders
• Auto-backup — Triggers Smart Backup on your chosen schedule

All scheduled tasks run silently in the background and are logged in the Activity Log, which you can review at any time.

Over time, apps that are running in the background quietly hold onto RAM even when they're not doing anything. Windows doesn't automatically reclaim this memory — it waits for pressure. The RAM Optimizer forces Windows to flush those inactive memory pages, immediately freeing working memory for the apps you're actually using.

To use it: go to RAM Optimizer in the left navigation. You'll see a live graph of your current memory usage. Click Boost RAM Now to run the optimization.

The RAM Optimizer is most effective in these situations:

• Before a memory-intensive task — Opening a large video edit, running a VM, or compiling code. Clearing inactive RAM first gives you a faster start with fewer pauses.
• After closing a heavy app — Browsers, games, and design tools often hold onto memory long after you close them. One click reclaims it immediately instead of waiting for Windows to catch up.
• When your PC feels sluggish but you haven't rebooted recently — Memory fragmentation from hours of multitasking is a common cause. RAM optimization often restores responsiveness without a full restart.
• On PCs with 4–8 GB RAM — Low-RAM systems benefit most because there's less headroom before Windows has to start paging heavily to disk.

You can also schedule automatic RAM optimization in Settings → Automation → RAM Optimizer — for example, every 6 hours while the PC is idle.

AutoPilot AI understands your PC's current state — storage usage, running processes, recent activity — and can give you specific, actionable guidance. Ask it anything:

• "How do I set up a daily backup?"
• "Why is my PC running slow?"
• "Create a macro that opens Chrome and Gmail every morning"
• "What files are taking up the most space?"
• "How do I stop Windows from tracking my recently opened files?"

The AI can suggest specific cleanup actions, walk you through feature setup step-by-step, diagnose performance issues, and help you build macros using natural language descriptions.

AutoPilot AI is included on every plan — Solo and Family Pack. It uses your own Anthropic API key:

Goal: your PC cleans itself, organizes itself, and backs itself up every week — completely silently, without you touching anything.

1. Enable Auto-Clean: Go to Settings → Automation → Auto-Clean. Toggle it on. Set the schedule to Weekly, Sunday at 3:00 AM. Under "Clean targets," make sure Temp Files, Browser Cache, and Recycle Bin are checked. Leave Recent File History unchecked if you want Windows to keep track of recently opened files.
2. Enable Auto-Organize: Go to File Manager → Auto-Organize. Toggle it on. Add your Downloads folder as a watched folder. Click Run Now once to sort everything already in there, then let the schedule handle new files automatically.
3. Enable Smart Backup: Go to File Manager → Smart Backup. Choose your source folders (Documents, Desktop, Pictures). Choose a destination — ideally an external drive or second internal drive. Set the schedule to Weekly, Saturday at 11:00 PM (runs before the cleanup, so you always have a backup before anything is removed). Click Enable.
4. Enable System Monitor alerts: Go to Settings → Monitor. Turn on desktop notifications for CPU, RAM, and disk. Adjust thresholds if the defaults are too sensitive for your machine.
5. Verify the Activity Log: After the first scheduled run completes, go to Dashboard → Activity Log and confirm all three tasks completed successfully. Green checkmarks mean everything ran as expected.

Goal: press one hotkey when you sit down at your desk and have everything you need automatically open, arranged, and ready — browser, email, your daily tools.

1. Plan your routine first. Write down exactly what you do every morning in order: open Chrome → go to Gmail → open Slack → open your project management tool → arrange the windows. That sequence becomes your macro.
2. Start recording: Go to Automation → New Macro → Record. PC AutoPilot minimizes to the tray. Now perform your morning routine exactly as you normally would, at a normal pace.
3. Stop recording: When you've opened everything you need, press F9. Give the macro a name like "Morning Startup" and click Save.
4. Test it once: Close everything. Click the macro and hit Run. Watch it replay. If a step misses (a window didn't load fast enough), open the macro editor and add a Wait 2 seconds step before that action.
5. Assign a hotkey: Open the macro → click the Schedule tab → choose Hotkey → press the key combination you want (e.g., Ctrl + Shift + M). Now that hotkey works anywhere in Windows.
6. Optional — set it to run On Login: If you want the morning routine to start automatically when you boot the PC, set the trigger to On Login (coming in v1.1) instead of a hotkey.

Goal: take a Downloads folder with thousands of random files accumulated over years and sort it into clean subfolders in one go.

1. Run Duplicate Finder first. Go to File Manager → Duplicate Finder, point it at your Downloads folder, and let it scan. Review the duplicates — select the ones to remove and click Delete Selected. They go to the Recycle Bin, not permanent deletion. Do this before organizing so you don't move duplicates into their tidy new homes.
2. Enable Auto-Organize in Power Mode. Switch to Power Mode first (Settings → Appearance → UI Mode → Power) so you can see and customize the rules. Go to File Manager → Auto-Organize.
3. Review and customize the rules. The default categories (Images, Documents, Videos, Music, Archives, Installers, Code) cover most files. If you have work-specific types — for example, all files starting with "Invoice" should go to an Invoices subfolder — click Add Rule and set it up. Rules are evaluated top-to-bottom, so put specific rules above general ones.
4. Click Run Now. PC AutoPilot processes every file in the folder and moves it into the correct subfolder. A progress dialog shows how many files were moved. This can take a few minutes for very large folders — let it complete.
5. Review the result. Open your Downloads folder. You'll see clean subfolders containing the sorted files. Anything that didn't match a rule stays in the root Downloads folder with an "Unsorted" flag in the Activity Log — you can review those manually or add rules to catch them next time.
6. Toggle Auto-Organize on. Now that the folder is clean, turn on the automatic watcher so new downloads are sorted as they arrive — no maintenance required going forward.

Goal: transfer your license, settings, and macros to a new PC without losing anything.

1. Export your macros (optional but recommended). On your old PC, go to Automation, select all your macros, and click Export. Save the .macro files to a USB drive or cloud folder you can access from the new PC.
2. Note your settings. On your old PC, go to Settings and take a screenshot or write down your Auto-Clean schedule, backup destinations, and any custom Auto-Organize rules. These aren't automatically transferred.
3. Deactivate on the old PC. Go to Settings → License & Plan → Deactivate this machine. This frees up the activation slot on that licence key so you can use it on the new PC. If you're keeping the old PC running too, skip this step — but remember each licence key covers one machine at a time.
4. Install on the new PC. Download the latest installer from github.com/crazydaze99/releases and run it on the new machine.
5. Activate with your existing key. On first launch, click Activate License and paste your original license key. No new purchase needed.
6. Import macros. Go to Automation → Import and select your exported .macro files. All your recorded macros are restored exactly as they were.
7. Reconfigure settings. Re-enter your Auto-Clean schedule, backup folders, and Auto-Organize rules from your notes. These take about 5 minutes to set up.