Windows 10 How to eliminate recent Microsoft offer

[Joe27]

An offer from Microsoft Windows popped up a few weeks ago and I downloaded it on the expectation of it being an improvement but instead it has made life more difficult and I’d like to reverse the action.

The download changed the background of many items so that the contrast was lessened, and since I have a visual impairment that works better the stronger the contrast, I am struggling with the changes. For example the task bar background has changed from black to light grey and several icons there are now difficult to identify comfortably. Elsewhere reading and image recognition has become more difficult as well.

I don’t remember the name of the download but it was obviously a major offer since offers of this magnitude are very rare and it took a long time to complete. I’ve checked my apps and programmes list and there was an exceptional amount of activity on 31 July, which would be around the time this occurred. Two of the items are called “Cyberlink Power …” Could this be the culprit that drove all the other activity?

My first thought was to go to a restore point prior to the downloads but to my surprise restore was not enabled. I’ve now corrected that fault.

So, I’d be grateful for any pointers to what the culprit might be and how I might replace it with the previous ecology. Thanks.

 

[Neemobeer]

Microsoft doesn't, to my knowledge, push any type of offer to computers. They used to notify when an upgrade was available, but even that practice has stopped. It's quite possible that it was malicious or spam in nature.

 

[Joe27]

Microsoft doesn't, to my knowledge, push any type of offer to computers. They used to notify when an upgrade was available, but even that practice has stopped. It's quite possible that it was malicious or spam in nature.

Thanks. I'd like to investigate a little further though before giving up. The crucial indicator is the replacement of the black task bar background with a light grey one. Is this associated with a recent upgrade of Windows 10? It seems a strange thing for mailicious software to do.

 

[Axel PC]

Yeah I've never seen Microsoft push their software via Windows like that. Anything pushed to you like that to install something has to be nefarious. The only thing critical pushed to Windows are Windows Updates and even then it's only pushed through Windows Update.

 

[Joe27]

Thanks for the comments.

The concern is that it may have been malware but the critical indicator is the task bar background change from black to light grey. Is this a feature of any windows 10 upgrades or maybe it’s a feature of known malware? If anyone can help with that question it would help me take it from here.

Also I’ve checked my apps and programmes list and there was an exceptional amount of updating on 31 July, which would be around the time that I accepted the download. Might there be clues here if I take a closer look at the updated Apps and Programmes? Thanks

 

[Joe27]

It looks as though it was something called Features Update and it was indeed from Microsoft..