Hi all,

First off: Can’t switch to Linux, Windows is a work requirement. Please spare me.

With that out of the way, here’s my problem:

Since 2-3 days I’ve been seeing ads disguised as a minimized video player popup on my Windows 10 Login Screen image.

Initially I thought I might have been watching something on youtube and forgot to close the tab and it autoplayed in the background until reaching this stuff by chance; but that turned out not to be the case (I’m also using Firefox exclusively, which I thought wouldn’t integrate with Windows, but I wasn’t 100% sure on that end).

I tried to research this a bit, but the only similar case I found was in an old reddit thread saying that some Windows update installed the LinkedIn App for them, which is not the case here.

Antivirus (Bit Defender) and Malwarebytes both give me a clean report.

So I did some more digging and right click that thing with my firewall set to deny all to figure out where this is taking me, and surprise…

Image

There’s a total of 100 connection attempts from Windows Search to around 10 different IP addresses, all of which belong to Microsoft.

I have not installed any updates in the last 14 days, no new software, and have not changed any system settings.

What did change is that I am currently not in China, where I normally live, but am on a business trip to Malaysia, where a bunch of services that are blocked in China might be accessible, and are now splicing in those (somewhat disguised) ads.

Does this happen to anyone else, and if so, do you have an idea how to get rid of it?

Thanks a lot in advance!

  • viking@infosec.pubOP
    17·
    5 months ago

    I live in China, policies are to be followed. There is no “but”, and I rather pick a nicer hill to die on, when it comes to that.

    • x4740N@lemm.ee
      318·
      5 months ago

      Damn I feel sorry for you

      Have you considered leaving china?

        • Possibly linuxEnglish
          22·
          5 months ago

          Be safe out there. People can disappear in China over just about anything

          • viking@infosec.pubOP
            5·
            5 months ago

            It’s really not as crazy as the media makes it sound like on a general basis, but yeah. Ever since covid even the last person realized what rights remain when the powers that be go wild. My days here are numbered anyways, just a few more weeks.

            • Possibly linuxEnglish
              11·
              5 months ago

              Honestly China makes me really sad. It has such a long and rich history and now the government seems to be completely separated from the government.