Recently, after getting some Windows updates installed on my HP laptop, I noticed a new icon popped up in the start menu - "agoda.com" (both by name and text in the logo/icon). I right-clicked it and clicked ‘uninstall’ but it redirected me to the control panel only to have no presence of anything by that name.

Having experience dealing with bloatware and unwanted installed-without-my-knowledge stuff in the past (not really), I immediately searched its unusual way of finding my way into my PC and found it to be a rather common issue. (or at least one with others having to deal with it in the past)

I found one thread in Microsoft windows forums that went through some discussion on it and I found a working answer. Follow the steps below if you happen to go through the same and want to remove such bloatware:

• Go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Hewlett-Packard\Shared" and search for "WizLink.exe". I got mine at "C:\Program Files (x86)\HP\Shared". If you can’t find it, search for the same inside Windows Explorer.
• Delete it, along with anything else by the name of "Wiz" (probably pertains to Wizard, and acts as a source of bloatware entry).
• Click ‘Start’, scroll to the corresponding icon and try removing by a right-click and uninstall again. This time it will throw up a window pane conveying that it’s not found (good news!) and whether you would like to delete the icon. You’ll go ahead with the prompt of course.

Link to thread for reference: Click here

Note: This issue is restricted to HP machines, and seems more of a bug due to HP updates. Also, following the thread above and some other answers for the same (removal of such bloatware) on the internet, you can try Revo Uninstaller (no, I’m not sponsored) if you want to discard remnants of uninstalled programs and such sneaky stuff.

Anirban

01/17/2020