# HELP! Microsoft is driving me crazy \[mcaffe/avast/office/support pop-up\] **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368 "2025-04-22T16:20:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/1 "2025-04-22T16:20:44Z")
I don’t know if anyone else is having this problem, but for last 3 days Microsoft has been very aggressive–intrusive, like every 3 minutes!–with popups trying to get me to subscribe to mcaffe/avast/office/support. So I have to go through skip buttons until I get to end, then I can back to where I was. Is there a way I can stop this? Thanks for any help. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/2 "2025-04-22T16:24:07Z")
That isn’t Microsoft. They would never push you to subscribe to McAfee. You might have Malware. It sounds like you do. What version of Windows are you on? How old is the machine? Do you know how to download Malwarebytes and run it? I believe that is still the standard for issues like this. Also I moved this from #Factual Questions to #In My Humble Opinion as it seems more suitable for an open-ended question like this. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/3 "2025-04-22T16:46:24Z")
I have Windows 10, computer 10+. II think Malware came with machine ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/4 "2025-04-22T16:47:37Z")
Seconded. [https://www.malwarebytes.com/](https://www.malwarebytes.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/5 "2025-04-22T17:47:41Z")
If MalwareBytes doesn’t fix it, might be time to take your computer to a local shop for some spring cleaning. You’re probably getting spammed by third-party malware that disguises itself as authentic-looking popups. That probably means your computer is vulnerable to other malware too, like ransomware that locks your files or things that steal all your data. Side note: If you don’t absolutely need Windows and can afford it, either a Chromebook or a Mac would likely prevent such issues. They’re most prevalent on Windows, especially old versions of Windows. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/6 "2025-04-22T18:07:29Z")
> [@fedman1](#): > > I have Windows 10, computer 10+. II think Malware came with machine Do you perhaps mean that McAfee (rather than malware) was installed on the machine when you purchased it? If so, Google for the McAfee Removal Tool to remove all traces of it and then enable Windows Defender. That’s free from Microsoft and really is the only anti-malware software you may need. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/7 "2025-04-22T18:53:33Z")
If it’s just started 3 days ago, it might be a program you installed recently that had “sponsored programs” tacked on to it and you didn’t realize you had to opt out of. You can check this by looking at Settings/Control Panel/Programs and features. See what has been installed recently and get rid of it. You can also bring up Task Manager (do a CTRL-ALT-DELETE and select that), and check to see what’s running. As others have said, Malwarebytes is great for simple malware checking. If you haven’t been careful about what programs are getting installed, you might need to backup your data, wipe the drive and do a fresh install. This oftentimes results in a noticeable speed up for a “slow computer”. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/8 "2025-04-22T20:32:45Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Side note: If you don’t absolutely need Windows and can afford it, either a Chromebook or a Mac would likely prevent such issues. They’re most prevalent on Windows, especially old versions of Windows. I’ve got both my 78 year old mother-in-law and my 87 year old mother using iPads for this exact reason. My MIL was taken in by one of the “Microsoft Support” scammers about 5 or 6 years ago. After reformatting and reinstalling Windows to remove the malware that they installed, I convinced her to upgrade to a new iPad. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/9 "2025-04-22T20:41:31Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Do you perhaps mean that McAfee (rather than malware) was installed on the machine when you purchased it? A distinction without a difference. 😉 But I agree, if you buy a branded, pre-built computer, it will frequently come with a ton of software frequently called “[bloatware](https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/answer/How-can-we-detect-and-uninstall-bloatware)” that you often don’t need or want. And often that software is a trial version, that will work for a number of months before it expires and pushes you to subscribe to continue to use it. Back in the day when I have worked for organizations that didn’t design their own software builds (usually smaller ones), the first thing I would do after acquiring a system is to go through and uninstall everything that I didn’t know for certain I would need, and either replace it with reputable paid-for software or a free alternative. Not only does the junk that is preinstalled take up space and slow your machine down by running in the background, but it might also conflict with other software you acquire later and often acts as a “ticking time bomb” for when trials expire, which I expect is what is being experienced now. And that is when the software doesn’t actively open your computer to security holes or have other unwanted behavior such as popping up advertisements or sending your information to a parent company (as spyware). ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/10 "2025-04-22T23:13:00Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > But I agree, if you buy a branded, pre-built computer, it will frequently come with a ton of software frequently called “[bloatware](https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/answer/How-can-we-detect-and-uninstall-bloatware)” that you often don’t need or want. And often that software is a trial version, that will work for a number of months before it expires and pushes you to subscribe to continue to use it. Heck, my Lenovo laptop came with some software preinstalled from Lenovo themselves that maybe ostensibly pretended to have some useful purpose (which I’ve completely forgotten by now) but if you leave it installed you soon learn that its true purpose is to serve you ads. It would every once in a while display a pop up that said “Here are the latest offers from Lenovo!” until I uninstalled it. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/11 "2025-04-22T23:15:41Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Heck, my Lenovo laptop came with some software preinstalled from Lenovo themselves that maybe ostensibly pretended to have some useful purpose (which I’ve completely forgotten by now) but if you leave it installed you soon learn that its true purpose is to serve you ads. Pretty typical. I think all the major vendors do this. At one job we used to get HP “all-in-one” desktop computers, which pretty much had the PC built into a monitor to take up less desk space. It was relatively cheap and convenient, but was loaded with a ton of crap that was branded by HP itself. We’d spend a good hour or so removing it before putting our software on it. (You had to reboot often which really lengthened the time it took to get it all off.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/12 "2025-04-22T23:17:46Z")
I don’t know if it’s still the case but Microsoft used to sell computers from the major manufacturers guaranteed not to have any bloatware. I heard that people complained to them about slow performance on brand new computers but when Microsoft investigated, the slowdowns were caused by the bloat. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/13 "2025-04-23T00:02:47Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I don’t know if it’s still the case but Microsoft used to sell computers from the major manufacturers guaranteed not to have any bloatware. Can they do that? The big companies barely make any money on low-end hardware, so the bundled bloatware is how they actually profit from PC sales… ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/14 "2025-04-23T00:15:34Z")
I don’t know if they can but they did. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/15 "2025-04-23T00:21:18Z")
When I was a computer salesman, we used to sell OEM copies of Windows 98 to people. It was just a Windows 98 installer with nothing extra. We could only sell it to someone if they bought a computer or at least a motherboard. That was the rule back then for us. The OEM copy of Windows 98 was a lot cheaper than the retail copy of the software. No bloatware. I’m just saying, that seems pretty consistent with what you’re claiming they did, even if it’s not the same thing. (Because _we_ were selling computers we assembled from parts you could get off a shelf, not a computer built by a major manufacturer.) As for why they did it, I believe it was a way for them to get Windows out there to people. I guess it works because it’s still the biggest consumer operating system more than 25 years later. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/16 "2025-04-23T00:30:20Z")
That’s probably not true anymore, if you include phones: [Operating System Market Share Worldwide | Statcounter Global Stats](https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/) ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/17 "2025-04-23T00:51:53Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I don’t know if they can but they did. They quite definitely did, but only through the Microsoft Store both retail and online. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to enable Microsoft’s success as a retailer. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/18 "2025-04-23T00:53:41Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > That’s probably not true anymore, if you include phones: Sorry, I just meant PCs. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-microsoft-is-driving-me-crazy-mcaffe-avast-office-support-pop-up/1017368/19 "2025-04-25T14:35:04Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > I don’t know if they can but they did. > > They quite definitely did, but only through the Microsoft Store both retail and online. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to enable Microsoft’s success as a retailer. Back when I used Windows, whenever I bought a new computer the first thing I would do was re-partition & reformat the hard drives, and reinstall Windows from scratch. Easier than uninstalling 80 million useless programs, and safer as well (the “nuke it from orbit” option). I did once buy a computer directly from Microsoft advertised as no bloat, and it really was bloat-free. It was nice to not have to wipe it and start fresh.