On certain corrupted projects or custom build steps, vs-preclean-vs.exe may spin indefinitely. This is almost always due to a misconfigured build rule (e.g., recursive custom builds, circular dependencies, or infinite file watchers).
Fix: Clean the solution manually (Build → Clean Solution), close Visual Studio, delete .vs folder in your project root, and restart.
| Condition | Verdict |
|-----------|---------|
| Located in Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio | ✅ Safe |
| Digitally signed by Microsoft | ✅ Safe |
| Runs only during build (Task Manager shows high CPU briefly) | ✅ Normal |
| Runs constantly, consumes >20% CPU while IDE closed | ⚠️ Investigate |
| Located in AppData or Temp | ❌ Likely malware |
| No digital signature | ❌ Extremely suspicious | vs-preclean-vs.exe
If you need more granular control over what vs-preclean-vs.exe deletes, consider customizing your .vcxproj file with custom BeforeClean or AfterClean targets in MSBuild.
Despite being a reliable tool, vs-preclean-vs.exe can cause or be associated with several errors: On certain corrupted projects or custom build steps,
Running manually may show:
vs-preclean-vs.exe [project_file] [options]
But Microsoft does not document it for direct use — parameters may change without notice. Despite being a reliable tool, vs-preclean-vs
vs-preclean-vs.exe is a command-line utility used by Visual Studio (Microsoft) build and deployment processes to remove intermediate build artifacts and temporary files before certain operations (for example, clean builds, packaging, or source control workflows). It’s typically invoked as part of automated build scripts, installer preparation, or CI/CD pipelines to ensure a fresh environment and avoid stale outputs causing build or deployment issues.