That Graph on the CPU Meter.....

Here's how it's supposed to look when I'm not using the computer:-

"And how did you fix it?" I hear you asking.  Simple: Re-installed Windows, for the umpteenth time.

"And why did you do that?", you ask. Because I got a couple of phone calls this morning from someone pretending to be with Microsoft, telling me that my computer was infected, and that only he could show me where to locate it and he would help me remove it. 

In other words, you don't know me, but if you give me control of your computer, then all will be well very soon. Yeah, sure - and another pig flew by overhead.

I should have hung up very quickly, but this guy bugged me, so I asked him why I'm the only one among millions that Microsoft cares for enough to watch my computer for me, and call me when it gets infected. And he said "That's what we're here for, and you are a valued customer, and we're only trying to help you the best we can." So I said, "In that case, I won't take up a lot of your valuable time - just give me the file name or names of the bad files and I will remove them myself and save you a lot of trouble." And he said, "It's no trouble for me, and you can't remove that malware by yourself - I have to be helping you or else it will just come back again with your next restart." So I said, "OK, but just do me a favor, and let me try it on my own first. Just tyell me the bad files, and I will write it down, and search for them, and remove them, and the

trouble will be fixed. So he gave me a couple of file names from within Windows 

system files, and I thanked him for his help, and promised to call him back if

I couldn't fix the problem. Then I hung up smartly. 

He was persistent. He called me back a second time, perhaps thinking I was ready to give in to his persuasiveness. I wasn't. I thanked him for calling, and said I would fix this problem myself, because I do not feel comfortable giving strangers access to my computer, and I would not agree to it. And after I hung up from that second call, I got thinking maybe it's a good idea to just put the old DVD in the drive and give Windows 8 another install, just to be on the safe side. And that's what happened this morning....

And if you get a call from someone saying they are with Microsoft and asking for your permission to take control of your computer, my suggestion is that you should hang up politely but quickly, and maybe if you can, you should do a search for a malicious backdoor trojan that runs in the background and allows remote access to a compromised system.... and without wasting too much time, re-install your Windows! As you can see by the considerable change in that graph on my CPU gadget, it can make a real difference.