Hi Peter,
BBJ here again. I've been using Ccleaner very sparingly since last year. The other Tech forums I'm on don't like
ANY Registry Cleaners. Though this one, along with Registry Mechanic do a pretty good job. That being said, I think I've run Ccleaner, Windows options defaults on Win8 and Win8.1 as well as the Win10 tech preview. I don't normally download any programs from PIRIFORM or anything else for that matter from FILEHIPPO. I've experienced various problems over the years. I also use DEFRAGGLER also a piriform app, and I always download from the PIRIFORM servers or mirrors.
I would suggest that you uninstall your Ccleaner from your hard drive, and re-download the Ccleaner from the PIRIFORM mirror rather than FILEHIPPO. Try again, and the filehippo update manager is really a download manager, works much like CNET or SOFTONIC. I don't like those darn things (the download managers) and rarely use them.
If this still doesn't get rid of the filehippo update manager thingy, do a
SYSTEM RESTORE and rollback your Win8.1 to a point in time prior to when you installed the Ccleaner via filehippo. If it still doesn't work, and you can't manually remove from Programs in Control Panel, you'll either have to do a
manual Registry app removal via
REGEDIT.EXE *be careful if you haven't done this before as it's very high risk! Make sure all your personal data is backed up to external media first*.
Lastly, if you still can't get rid of the filehippo update manager, or you don't want to risk a manual Registry app removal as above, you should do a complete Win8.1 reinstall and drive wipe.
I don't think it's an anomaly, you just downloaded the Ccleaner from the wrong source! I've had no major problems with Ccleaner on Win8/8.1 on both laptops and desktops!
Let me know how it goes.
Best,
<<<BBJ>>>