Everything an app left behind.
Point HiveSweeper at any installed application and it finds everything that came with it: registry keys, folders, services, scheduled tasks, the uninstaller. It sorts what is safe from what deserves a second look, and writes a PowerShell script to remove it, which you read before anything happens.
Portable.exe.
It inspects and writes the script. It never deletes anything itself.
The script previews by default and runs nothing until it is deliberately started with
-Execute, so every removal is one you have read and chosen.
A clean removal, without the guesswork
Uninstallers leave things behind: services, scheduled tasks, folders, registry keys in every user's profile. HiveSweeper gathers all of it into one view and grades each item. Safe items belong to the app itself and are ticked for you. Review and Check first items are worth a look before they go. Anything shared with other software is left alone.
Before it goes: what still needs it?
Removing a runtime or shared component can quietly break other software. App dependencies shows, for any installed app, what depends on it (Needed by) and what it depends on (Depends on), with the evidence for each link: a shared file another program loads, a record its installer left, the .NET runtime a program asks for, a service that depends on another, or a framework package a Store app needs. It works it out from what the PC itself records, for any app, Store and packaged apps included. A file that also belongs to another installed product stays until the last one is removed, so it isn't counted as a risk.
Removal scripts check every device, and every user profile on it, before uninstalling an app or removing a Store package. Wherever something on that device still needs it, it is left in place, and the summary says what needs it.
More than an uninstaller
- This PC at a glance. A health check covering compliance, security, storage, management and software, with a short list of anything worth a look, and a snapshot that exports to PDF.
- Windows updates. Patches, update history and failures with their error codes, whether a restart is still needed, and what each update changed on the PC.
- Always On VPN. Device tunnel and user tunnel: profiles, connection state, sign-in certificates and their expiry, DNS routing rules and recent connection failures.
- Compliance (beta). Fourteen checks across security, build standard and software, each with what was found, what was expected and how to fix it.
- App dependencies. What depends on each installed app, and what it depends on, so removing one doesn't break another.
- App updates. See what is out of date, and copy the upgrade command for every update at once.
- Store apps. Microsoft Store and packaged apps removed the supported way. System components are refused outright.
- Registry, services, tasks, policies and settings. Browse and search them, scoped to one app or the whole device.
- Installer inspection. Point it at an
.exeor.msito read its version, publisher, signature and the right silent-install switches. - Search everything. One search box, Ctrl+K, across pages, settings, apps and services.
What did that update change?
When something stops working after Windows updates, the question is which update, and what it changed. HiveSweeper groups updates installed together and shows, for each group, the Windows build before and after, servicing packages, drivers, services added, apps, and any errors that first appeared after the restart that finished it. Removed updates are listed too.
For an exact answer, Save baseline before an update and Compare with now after it: every registry setting and system file that changed is listed, grouped into policies, services, system settings and files.
VPN and compliance
The VPN tab, beside Intune and Configuration Manager, shows the Always On VPN device tunnel and user tunnel: whether each is connected, whether Always On has been switched off, the certificates available to sign in with, the DNS routing rules, and recent connection failures with their error codes. Compliance (beta) checks the PC against a checklist that can be tuned, loaded from a file or web address, or locked by policy.
Make it yours
Twelve themes, light and dark, including one that takes its colours from the desktop wallpaper and follows it when it changes.
How it avoids false matches
The risk with a tool like this is a false match: something that looks like part of the app but belongs to Windows or another program. HiveSweeper is deliberately cautious:
- What it finds is checked against the app's own uninstall record (install folder, product code, version), so more items are confirmed safe and other apps' keys are dropped.
- Name matches must land on a word boundary, so "Systems" never matches "SystemSoundsService".
- Windows' own components are excluded, and vendor folders such as
SOFTWARE\Microsoftare searched inside but never reported as the app's own. - Only safe items are pre-selected. Everything else is your call.
Built for managed PCs
HiveSweeper is code-signed by Embermont Ltd, and its updates install only when they carry that signature. It builds scripts as a standard user; actually running a removal, which touches machine-wide settings and other users' profiles, is a separate, deliberately elevated step. It never starts an installer or any other program itself. There is no obfuscation or evasion anywhere in it, so it sits comfortably on estates running Microsoft Defender for Endpoint or Cyber Essentials Plus controls.
How to use it
The HiveSweeper guide walks through finding what an application left behind, choosing what to remove, and building and running the removal script.
Latest release
Release notes are published with every version on GitHub.