I have the Hotspot Shield VPN on one of my computers. It works fine, but I've noticed that it runs in the background after I restart my computer and even after I removed it from the startup folder. I also just don't like the look of it - the design (opening tabs, shady ads, etc.) screams "malware! malware!" but its the only VPN I have access to. I'm not sure if I want to install it on my new laptop, however.
Does Hotspot Shield fool around in the registry? Is it safe to have on my computer? If I uninstall it, will it be completely wiped from my computer?
EDIT - I mainly use VPNs to get past OpenDNS.