Okay guys, so lemme tell you about my battle with hpcleaner. Honestly, this thing kinda snuck up on me. Didn’t even notice it at first.

Started Noticing Weird Stuff

My laptop started acting up. Real slow. Programs taking forever to open. Annoying pop-ups every now and then, like something was trying to get my attention. I thought maybe I just needed to restart, or maybe clear some old downloads. Did the usual things:

• Checked Task Manager – didn’t see anything obvious eating resources.
• Ran the built-in disk cleanup tool – freed up some space, but nah, the sluggishness stayed.
• Tried restarting a bunch of times – same old, same old.

Felt like I was hitting my head against a wall. Frustrating!

Time for Some Digging

Couldn't ignore it anymore. Had to figure out what was causing this junk. Pulled up the list of installed programs. Scrolled through... and there it was. hpcleaner. Name sounded kinda familiar? Maybe it came with some printer driver ages ago? Couldn't remember.

Looked harmless enough, I guess. But its timing sure matched my problems. Decided this "helper" needed a one-way ticket outta my system.

The Actual Removal Struggle

Went to uninstall it normally, through the settings panel. Clicked uninstall... waited... nothing seemed to happen. Thought it crashed. Tried again. Same deal.

Alright, Plan B. Found the program folder – some folder buried deep in Program Files (x86). Tried deleting it directly. Permission denied. Of course. Right-clicked, properties... it was running some background process sneaky-like. Used Task Manager again, found the process with a weird name – not called hpcleaner, naturally. Ended that task. Finally could delete the folder.

Thought I was done? Not done. Still saw little traces – stuff popping up in my file explorer context menu when I right-clicked stuff. Like little ghosts.

Got serious now. Opened up regedit. Yeah, had to go deep. Took a breath, double-checked everything before deleting. Searched for "hpcleaner". Found entries:

• Under some software keys
• In some context menu handler sections.

Deleted those specific keys. Closed regedit like I was defusing a bomb. Scary stuff.

Finally Free… Mostly

Rebooted after all that surgery. Crossed my fingers. Booted up... silence. No pop-ups. No weird sluggishness dragging everything down. Felt like I’d wrestled a gremlin and won!

Did another scan later, found a couple of leftover bits hiding in temp files and AppData. Scorched earth policy engaged. Deleted 'em all.

Lesson Learned (The Hard Way)

Big takeaway? Pay attention. Stuff like hpcleaner can just hitch a ride with other stuff you install and then stick around like bad house guests. Don’t ignore small irritations; they’re usually warning signs.

And honestly? Cleaning stuff properly sometimes requires getting your hands dirty – task manager, file explorer, maybe even regedit if you’re careful. Don’t just rely on the easy uninstall button; sometimes it just laughs at you.

My system’s running smooth again. Took way longer than it should have, but feels good to have that junk gone. You live and you learn, right?