Is this Windows 10 situation true?

[Al Launier]

I just received this email from a retired friend of mine. It states ".......Hope all is well you guys. Are you familiar with computer websites which offer a periodic cleaning / maintenance of your computer? With Windows 10 you get all kinds of Help?? Are they safe? -- they do have the capability of taking over the curser if you want. Technicion Inc. is the site and they work out of Canada. They claim to be the number one company who provide this service for Windows 10. Mind you, I didn't ask for this. They say that Microsoft uses them? I called the outfit and after the normal 15 minute wait, I got a person who spoke English. (must be legitimate, because 10-20 minutes is about right for all businesses these days). Anyway these are the kind of issues that they say I have with my computer. 32 SYSTEM RELATED ERRORS, 172 COM&ACTIVE X ERRORS, 349 USER RELATED ERRORS, AND A FEW STARTUP & UNINSTALL ERRORS. Sounds like a lot of errors slowing down my computer? and how the hell do they know my errors? One thing I don't like is when I boot up each AM a screen comes up listing all my errors and it is often a little hard to get out of their site -- sometimes to point of re-starting. Can you tell me the risk of using one of these sites? If you study their website, the service is "kind of free", but they make you agree to let them release info for advertising purposes. YUK! Is there a way to cleanup my own problems? Mind you, I didn't know I had problems before they got into my network. I'm finding that Windows 10 gives you too much for the average person to work around. Apps out the ying yang Do you do anything particular to keep your computer healthy and not overloaded with junk?"

Have anu of you W10 users experienced anything like this? I'm nearing the time when I plan on upgrading from W8.1 to W10, but if any of this is true I may have to reconsider.

Yout thoughts please.
Thank you.

[Jim Koepke]

I get these guys calling me, AND I AM ON A MAC!!!

Macintosh has enough of these phonies trying to get access to my machine with Mac targeted ads. From the user group conversations I have read, it is best to stay away from these predators.

When they call, I always ask how they know my machine is having a problem. Then I ask why they were spying on me. Then I tell them I do not do business with criminals. When they protest I tell them I am on the national do not call listing. If they are calling me, they must be a criminal.

It is kind of refreshing to get them to hang up before I hang up.

jtk

[Mike Henderson]

Scam. Tell them to get a real job. Then hang up on them.

Mike

[They sent that message with your friend's email address (spoofing). I'm pretty sure he didn't send it.]

[Mark Taylor2]

It's definitely a con. These guys are in a call center in India or Pakistan. Usually they call you and immediately say they are from Microsoft Support and that you have viruses. They will remote into your PC and leave assorted bad things and screw up settings and then hit your credit card for their "service". MS doesn't call anyone about viruses. Ever. Nor do they email.

I'm not sure who to report this site to, but it's a fraud as are the others.

[Myk Rian]

I have a few seniors that I help with their problems. I'm ALWAYS un-installing that crap from their machines.
It isn't just Win 10, it's all versions.

[Lee Schierer]

When they call me I tell them I have a Commodore 64, some of them don't know what that is.

[Brian Tymchak]

I just received this email from a retired friend of mine.

Sounds like maybe your retired friend well fell for the scam and while they were in his/her machine, they swiped the address book.

[Kev Williams]

The other day this pig 8.1 I'm using started up its usual afternoon works-for-2-seconds-doesn't-work-for-5-seconds routine. I was pretty sure it was Avast running a virus scan or something. Some of my other XP computers have been doing the same thing, but to a much lesser extent. So I uninstalled Avast and put Defender back in service.

Wow, what a difference! Nooo, not in a good way-- the computer lost at least half it's already glacial speed. Every single click of the mouse goes like click, blue-circle-thing for 2 seconds, action. Every single time! Is this stupid computer looking for a virus every time the mouse is used? That's how it's acting... Then Sunday, this thing becomes nearly unusable. So I start shutting down programs, and open the task manager. My CPU is running between 90 and 100% constantly, even after every program (but task manager) is shut down. Task manager is eating only 2.3%...

So I took some screenshots...

First one is CPU usage, 4 minutes worth, with NOTHING running but Task Manager--
cpu1.jpg

Then I got a bright idea, and shut down internet access...CPU usage plummets...
cpu4.jpg

4 minutes later---
cpu5.jpg

Now, I don't care what anyone says, my conspiracy theory is that this is Microsoft deliberately bombing my computer
in order for me to go "gee, my Windows 8.1 sure is getting slow, maybe I should go ahead and put Windows 10 on it".

NOT ON YOUR *&^%$! LIFE, BILL. I will never ever ever use anything newer than Win7 as long as I live. I don't have to,
and I won't. Every Win10 computer- and 8.1 it seems- is like a bank vault with no door, wide open to allow
Bill to do whatever Bill wants with it. Sorry Bill, you're not welcome here. I don't appreciate that you've taken it upon
yourself with every new version of Windows to eliminate more and more functions that are necessary for the equipment that I-
and MANY OTHERS use. I'll be damned if I'm going to spend good money buying new equipment I don't need just because
your fancy new Windows 10 (and 8, and 7) won't run my old equipment.

Guess it's clear how I feel about Windows 10...

And the "missing door" on everyone's computer is just making the pickin's ripe for all these scammers...

[Dan Hintz]

Now, I don't care what anyone says, my conspiracy theory is that this is Microsoft deliberately bombing my computer
in order for me to go "gee, my Windows 8.1 sure is getting slow, maybe I should go ahead and put Windows 10 on it".

Two heavily more likely things are happening: 1) You're downloading/installing Windows updates in the background (temporary, but can last for hours on poorly-admin'ed systems), or 2) You have malware on your system that is acting as a bot. I give 50/50 chances for either the way things are these days.

Shutting off the internet connection and seeing CPU usage drop like a rock is a big, red pointer to this issue. Been there, done that hundreds of times. MS is not quite that evil... yet.

Oh, BTW... Task Manager is never the only thing running on your system. After the three finger salute, check under the Processes tab and click the "Show processes from all users" button. I expect 50 or so processes to be running.

[Al Launier]

I still have W8.1, but get reminders daily on my screen to update to the free W10 OS. I have held off doing so waiting for most of the changes, i.e. updates, to be included into the download. I like W8.1. Having gone directly to W8.1 from Windows Vista Home Premium it was an easy transition. Frankly, I really didn’t experience all the woes others conveyed when I went to W8.1. It does everything I want to do with my PC. Now, if W10 is supposed to be a combo of W7 & W8.1 what’s my gain? I can only think that in time W8.1 won’t be supported by MS, but by then there most likely will be another version, or two, available. So, if the problems noted are due to various scams, as they most likely are, why should I go through this with W10?
Secondly, if these scams are specifically targeting both W10 & W8.1, then I suspect that my AV protection software (Kaspersky Total Security) is doing its job. Perhaps it would work as well for W10 as it has for W8.1, but impossible to predict. Another reason to stand down from installing W10. Plus, with hacking being so pervasive these days, especially at the federal levels, I think it would be more appropriate for software manufacturers to trace the source of these AV intruders & have them immediately prosecuted with criminal penalties – without the typical delays.

Anyway, I still have until July, 2016 to update to W10 if I should decide to do so.

[Curt Harms]

2) You have malware on your system that is acting as a bot.

That was my first thought.

As I understand it, staying away from Windows 10 will not prevent personal data being sent to Microsoft (and who knows who else). The same monitoring software on Windows 10 is supposedly being installed on Win 7 & 8.1 as an update. There is a way to avoid the monitoring and malware mess. It doesn't come from Microsoft or Apple or any 'security software' vendor.

[paul cottingham]

Here I am. I will say what needs to be said.

Linux.

That is all.

(before anyone gets all wound up at me, I am just poking the bear. I can't help myself.)

[Wade Lippman]

Aside from the standard antivirus programs, I use Glary Utilities to clean my register and such. There are a number of similar programs.

Your friend might have a bad problem. Since he obviously isn't computer literate, he might want to take it somewhere fast.

[paul cottingham]

If even half of the FOD about Windows 10 and its invasiveness is true, I would never install it. I was horrified to hear that 7 installs most of the invasive stuff as part of some of the security updates. Very bad stuff.

[Curt Harms]

If even half of the FOD about Windows 10 and its invasiveness is true, I would never install it. I was horrified to hear that 7 installs most of the invasive stuff as part of some of the security updates. Very bad stuff.

From whose point of view? They can monitor every keystroke I make in Windows. They won't learn much.