Isthg | Launcher.exe

I killed the process (finally succeeded via taskkill /f /pid in an admin CMD). I deleted the folder. I rebooted, feeling victorious.

I opened that folder. Inside save_data.sav wasn't a binary blob—it was plain text. I opened it in Notepad.

I was wrong.

Forty-five second boot time. Open Task Manager. ISTHG Launcher.exe is back. The task had recreated itself.

At this point, I wasn't cleaning my PC. I was in a psychological thriller. I couldn't delete it. I couldn't stop it. So I decided to study it. ISTHG Launcher.exe

For me, that process was ISTHG Launcher.exe .

The trigger? At system startup, repeat every hour, run indefinitely. I killed the process (finally succeeded via taskkill

I disabled the task. I deleted the XML file from Windows\System32\Tasks . I deleted the ISTHG folder again. I ran sfc /scannow for good measure.

I opened (because Task Manager is for amateurs, right?) and there it was, nestled between my Nvidia driver helper and my VPN client: I opened that folder

Nothing. Zero results. Not a single forum post, Reddit thread, or VirusTotal analysis. It was as if this file had spawned directly from the void onto my SSD. My first theory? A mod. I am a serial modder. At the time, I had 47 mods active for Kerbal Space Program , a total conversion for Stalker Anomaly , and a texture pack for Minecraft that hadn't been updated since 2018.