👻 Ghosty Tools

The Professional All-in-One Cross-Platform Optimization & Security Suite

Ghosty Tools is a high-performance, modular utility designed to secure and optimize your Windows, Linux, and macOS environments. Built with a focus on Security First, it combines system maintenance, security auditing, and professional-grade password management into a single, sleek interface.

🆕 What's New in v7.3.6

📦 Winget package published: Ghosty Tools is now available via winget install ghostytools — no manual download required.
🎵 GhostTune Converter via winget: GhostTune Converter in the App Essentials installer now installs via winget install Ghostshadowplays.GhostTuneConverter instead of a direct download link — faster, cleaner, and auto-detects if already installed.

🆕 What's New in v7.3.5

🎮 Gaming Mode fixed: @staticmethod decorator added to toggle_gaming_mode — previously the enable parameter defaulted to True when called as a class method, meaning "Revert to Defaults" was silently enabling instead of reverting. Both Enable and Revert now work correctly.
🧵 Gaming Mode no longer hangs: QTimer.singleShot callbacks from background threads now use the 3-argument form (singleShot(0, context, callback)) to ensure they run on the main thread — eliminating the UI freeze.
🗂️ Log Viewer upgraded: File selector dropdown to switch between all available log files, Refresh button, line count indicator, and a cleaner styled layout.
🧹 Tidy Desktop enhanced: Un-recognised files now appear in an "Other / Unrecognised" section (collapsed, unchecked by default). Every category has a tick-box — un-tick to skip the whole category or individual files. Parent-to-child check propagation for one-click category control.
🎮 Steam game detection: Dropping a game .exe now first looks up the Steam appmanifest_*.acf file to get the official game title — works for any installed Steam game, not just those in the built-in database.
🎨 Appearance slider fixed: Background intensity slider no longer chops/stutters on drag — valueChanged now only updates the internal value while dragging; the theme rebuild and save happen only once on sliderReleased.
🔧 DLL error on update fixed: Batch updater now cleans all _MEI* folders in %TEMP% (not just one specific path) before relaunching — eliminates "Failed to load Python DLL" errors after self-updates. Wait time before relaunch increased from 3 s to 5 s.

🆕 What's New in v7.3.4 (Hotfix)

🐧 Linux sudo fix: is_admin() now uses os.geteuid() instead of os.getuid() — sudo correctly grants admin mode on Linux (real UID vs effective UID).
🎮 Dedicated Gaming page: Gaming Mode and Game Compatibility Analyzer moved to their own Gaming sidebar page — enable/disable/revert controls and the full inline analyzer all in one place.
🖱️ Drag & drop fixed: Game .exe files now drop correctly onto the Game Analyzer — QLineEdit and QTextEdit no longer silently intercept drag events; a proper _DropZoneFrame with visual hover feedback is used instead.
🌐 All games supported: When a game is not in the built-in database (50+ titles), a manual requirements form appears — enter RAM, CPU cores, VRAM, and storage yourself, then compare against your detected hardware.
↩️ Revert Gaming Mode: New "Revert to Defaults" button restores Balanced power plan, re-enables SysMain, Windows Update, and other gaming tweaks back to their original state.

🆕 What's New in v7.3.3

🗂️ Tidy Desktop: New one-click desktop organiser — scans for loose files (images, videos, music, documents, archives, installers) and moves them to the correct library folder. Shortcuts and folders are never touched.
🎮 Game Compatibility Analyzer: Type a game name or drag & drop its .exe to get an instant compatibility score (0–100) against your hardware. Checks RAM, CPU cores, GPU VRAM, and free disk space. Built-in database of 30+ popular titles. Suggests Gaming Mode if your system is below recommended specs.
🚀 Expanded Game Mode: Gaming Mode now applies 9 comprehensive tweaks — Ultimate Performance power plan, Xbox Game DVR off, Nagle's algorithm disable per interface, GPU high-performance preference, fullscreen optimisations off, SysMain/Superfetch disable, MMCSS priority boost, and Windows Update pause — with a full restore path.
🛡️ Expanded Security Scanner: Windows checks expanded from 5 to 11 (adds RDP exposure, Windows Update status, autorun entries, BitLocker, Guest account, and open ports). Linux checks expanded from 3 to 5 (adds sudoers NOPASSWD and world-writable files).
🔗 Auto-Update Shortcut: The updater now automatically recreates the desktop shortcut pointing to the new exe after a successful update, so your shortcut is never left pointing at the old path.
🖥️ Compact Page Startup: Cleanup, Hardware, Services, and Automation pages now start minimal — data containers are hidden until a scan/refresh is triggered, making the UI feel faster and less cluttered.
📺 Taller Terminal Feed: Live terminal feed height increased from 150 to 220 px for more visible output.
🐧 Tweaks Page Platform Guard: System Tweaks page now correctly shows a "not available" notice on Linux and macOS instead of rendering Windows-only registry controls.

🆕 What's New in v7.3.2

🔧 Settings Page: New dedicated Settings page with minimize-to-tray toggle, alert refresh interval, startup page selector, and full Windows/Linux startup manager.
🖥️ Startup Manager: Register or remove Ghosty Tools from Windows startup (registry) or Linux autostart (.desktop file) — one click, no manual steps.
📊 Live Sensor Data: Hardware tab now integrates with LibreHardwareMonitor — one-click install via winget, automatic web server configuration, and minimized background launch.
🔔 Live System Alerts: Dashboard alerts are now fully dynamic — real-time checks for high memory, low disk space, pending reboots, and available updates.
🏆 Real Health Score: Multi-factor scoring accounts for CPU, RAM, disk usage, pending reboots, and update availability with colour-coded feedback.
📈 Speed Test History: Last 3 speed test results are now persisted and shown in the Network page.
📋 Recent Activity Log: App actions are saved across sessions and shown in the Dashboard activity card.
📄 Export System Report: Generate a full system snapshot (OS, CPU, RAM, disk, network, speed history, activity) saved to your Desktop.
📝 Built-in Log Viewer: View today's log file in-app without leaving the window.
↔️ Resizable Sidebar: Drag the divider between the sidebar and content area to any width you prefer.
🎨 Appearance & Theme Buttons: Clearly labelled sidebar buttons — 🎨 Appearance and 🌙 Toggle Theme — no more mystery icons.
🔢 Version Badge: Current version shown at the bottom of the sidebar.
🃏 Card Hover Effects: Dashboard cards highlight their border on hover using the active theme colour.
🐧 Linux Transparency Fix: Background no longer bleeds through on Linux desktop environments.
⚡ Speed Test Fix: Speed test now works correctly in the Windows .exe (noconsole) build.
🖼️ Sidebar Icons Fix: Nav icons now render correctly on all Windows systems (font loaded via inline stylesheet).
💾 Config File Locations: All config files (theme.json, activity log, speed history, backup) now stored safely in %APPDATA%\GhostyTools\ — nothing lands next to the exe.
🔄 Update Reliability: Batch updater now cleans up the old PyInstaller temp folder before launching the new exe, preventing DLL load errors on restart.

✨ Features

📊 Dashboard & System Overview

Live System Usage: Real-time monitoring of CPU, RAM, and GPU utilisation with colour-coded health indicators.
System Health Score: Multi-factor score (0–100) accounting for CPU, RAM, disk, pending reboots, and available updates.
Live System Alerts: Dynamic alerts for high memory, low disk, pending reboots, and update availability — auto-refreshed every 60 seconds.
Recent Activity: Persistent log of recent app actions shown on the Dashboard.
System Specifications: Detailed hardware information (CPU, GPU, RAM, Motherboard) — cross-platform.
Battery & Disk Health: Real-time health status monitoring for battery and system drives.
Quick Actions: One-click shortcuts for common tasks, platform-aware (Windows Update / macOS Update / APT).

🌐 Network Hub

Network Speed Test: Integrated speed test with persistent history of the last 3 results.
IP Intelligence: Display local/public IP, ISP details, and geographic location.
DNS Benchmarker: Compare response times of major DNS providers to find the fastest one.
Port Scanner: Check for open ports to identify potential security exposure.

🔧 System Maintenance & Advanced Tools

Full Maintenance: One-click execution of SFC, DISM, GPUpdate, and CHKDSK.
Hosts File Editor: Safe GUI for managing system-level domain mapping and telemetry blocking.
DNS Flush & Network Repair: Quickly clear DNS cache or run a full network repair sequence.
Windows Updates: Check for and initiate Windows Update installations.
Restore Points: Create system restore points before making major changes.

🛡️ Privacy & Security

Privacy Audit: Scans for privacy-invasive settings and helps disable them.
Browser Privacy Cleaner: Clear cookies, cache, and history across Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari.
Secure File Shredder: Permanently delete sensitive files by overwriting them multiple times.
Vulnerability Scanner: Checks Windows Defender, Firewall, UAC, SMBv1, RDP exposure, Windows Update status, autorun entries, BitLocker, Guest account, and open ports (11 checks on Windows, 5 on Linux).

🖥️ Hardware & Sensors

Live Sensor Data: Real-time CPU/GPU temperatures, fan speeds, and voltages via LibreHardwareMonitor.
One-click LHM Setup: Install LibreHardwareMonitor via winget, auto-configure its web server, and launch it minimised — sensors appear automatically.
S.M.A.R.T. Diagnostics: Disk health checks and battery info.

🚀 Task & Process Management

Resource Hog Detector: Lists top processes by CPU/RAM with a one-click "Optimize" button.
Process Manager: Real-time process monitoring and management.

🗑️ Windows Debloat & Tool Manager

System Scan: Detect installed bloatware across multiple categories (Xbox, Cortana, Bing, etc.).
Smart Uninstaller: Sequences from Winget ID → Name → Specialised PowerShell removal for stubborn apps.
App Essentials: One-click installation for 7-Zip, VLC, Brave, Discord, HWiNFO, and more via Winget.
Tidy Desktop: Automatically organise desktop files into library folders (Pictures, Videos, Music, Documents, Downloads) — shortcuts and folders untouched.
Game Compatibility Analyzer: Check if your system meets the minimum/recommended requirements for 30+ popular games. Drag & drop an exe or type a game name for an instant scored report.

🔐 Password Management

Password Generator: Generate cryptographically secure passwords.
ShadowKeys Vault: AES-256 encrypted local password storage with PBKDF2-HMAC key derivation.
Clipboard Security: Copied passwords are automatically cleared after 30 seconds.

⚙️ Settings & Startup

Settings Page: Control minimize-to-tray, alert refresh interval, and startup page from within the app.
Startup Manager (Windows): Add/remove Ghosty Tools from the Windows registry Run key.
Startup Manager (Linux): Add/remove a .desktop autostart entry for your desktop environment.

🔔 Tray & Notifications

System Tray Icon: Always-available tray icon with quick-access menu for common actions.
Tray Notifications: Desktop notifications for completed scans, updates, speed tests, and more.
Minimize Behaviour: By default, minimising keeps the window in the taskbar and Task View. Tray-on-minimize is optional in Settings.

🌍 Cross-Platform Support

Ghosty Tools v7.3.6 is fully optimised for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Windows: Deep system tweaks, Winget integration, registry startup manager, and PowerShell-based maintenance.
Linux: UFW firewall management, package manager detection (apt/dnf/pacman/zypper), autostart .desktop management, and native log viewing.
macOS: Homebrew integration, app residue cleaning, and native maintenance scripts.

> Note for Linux & macOS users: Core features (Dashboard, Network Hub, Security Scanner, Task Manager, Privacy Audit, Password Vault) are fully functional on all platforms. Some Windows-specific features (Debloat, Registry Tweaks, Tidy Desktop, Game Compatibility Analyzer, Event Viewer) are automatically hidden or replaced with a platform notice on non-Windows systems. macOS support continues to expand — see LINUX_SUPPORT.md for build instructions and a full feature matrix.

See LINUX_SUPPORT.md for Linux build instructions.

📦 Install via Winget

You can install Ghosty Tools directly from the Windows Package Manager:

winget install ghostytools

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

Python 3.10+ (Fully compatible with Python 3.14)
Windows 10/11, Linux, or macOS
Administrator Privileges (optional for launch, required for system modifications)

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Ghostshadowplays/Ghosty-Tools.git
cd Ghosty-Tools

Create and activate a virtual environment (recommended):

# Windows
python -m venv venv
.\venv\Scripts\activate

# Linux/macOS
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Install dependencies:
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```

Running the App

python main.py

📁 Project Structure

src/core/ — Logic engines for scanning, cleaning, updates, and security.
src/gui/ — User interface components built with PyQt6.
src/utils/ — Helper functions, theme manager, and logging configuration.
config/ — JSON configuration files for bloatware definitions and version info.
images/ — Brand assets and icons.

🔒 Security Policy

No Data Collection: Ghosty Tools operates entirely locally. No passwords or system data are ever transmitted externally.
Secure Commands: All system operations use secure subprocess calls without shell execution (where possible) to prevent command injection.
Encryption: ShadowKeys uses industry-standard Fernet (AES) encryption with secure key derivation (PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256).
Key Verification: The vault includes a verification block to ensure the master password is correct before attempting to decrypt your data.
Local Storage: All config, vault, and log files are stored in platform-specific directories with restricted permissions:
- Windows: %APPDATA%\GhostyTools\
- Linux/macOS: ~/.config/GhostyTools/
Clipboard Security: Copied passwords are automatically cleared from the clipboard after 30 seconds.
Least Privilege: The application launches with standard user privileges. Admin elevation is only requested when performing system-level operations.

📝 License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Special Thanks

A big thank you to haywardgg — systems admin, vibe coder from Manchester, and founder of a chill coding community where devs share projects, help each other out, and keep it low-pressure. This project would not be as great as it is without him.

Join the communities:

GhostyWare Discord: discord.gg/YKsAJYx
haywardgg's Coding Server: discord.gg/UUuafBYMdG

Disclaimer: Ghosty Tools provides advanced system modification capabilities. While safety checks are included, use these tools at your own risk. Always back up important data before making system changes.

Ghosty Tools Ghostshadowplays

README