By the end of this guide, your PC will clean itself, organise itself, and alert you if something goes wrong — all without you having to do anything. The whole setup takes about 15 minutes. Here's exactly what to do.

Step 1: Install PC AutoPilot and Run Your First Cleanup

Download PC AutoPilot from pcautopilot.com/download and run the installer. After the short setup wizard, go to Cleanup and run your first scan — it identifies temp files, cache, and other clutter before any automation is configured. Accept the recommended cleanup. The scan tells you how much can actually be removed right now — Windows holds some temporary files open, and those are reported separately rather than counted toward the total — so you start from a clean, honest baseline.

Step 2: Enable Auto-Organize for Downloads

Go to File Manager in the left nav and turn on auto-organize for your Downloads folder. The default rules work well for most people:

If you want custom rules, switch to Power mode and add your own — pick a file type and where it should go. Turn on the folder watcher and PC AutoPilot sorts matching files soon after they appear.

Step 3: Schedule Weekly Maintenance

Go to Automation and toggle on Scheduled PC Cleanup (weekly on Sunday by default) . The scheduled run clears temp files silently in the background, and everything it does is logged in the Dashboard activity feed. For a deeper pass — browser cache, recent-file history, emptying the Recycle Bin — run a full cleanup from the Cleanup page whenever you like.

Step 4: Enable System Alerts

Alerts are on by default (you can switch them off under Settings → Notifications). You'll get a Windows notification if CPU stays pinned above 90%, if RAM use passes 85%, or if a drive fills past 90%. These aren't scary warnings — they're quiet nudges, like a check engine light, so you can deal with issues before they become crises.

Step 5: Test It

Drag a few files into your Downloads folder and watch them get sorted automatically. Then check the System Monitor dashboard — it shows real-time CPU, RAM, and disk graphs. That's it. You're done. From now on, the only PC maintenance task left on your to-do list is acting on the occasional alert.

Pro tip: If you have AutoPilot AI (included on all plans), ask it to review your current setup and suggest optimizations. It can look at your specific hardware and usage patterns to recommend better thresholds for your alerts.