Solved Big Brother Is Watching Windows 8.1

Check out this sequence of events:

1-Did a clean install of Win 8.1
2-Downloaded a custom theme
3-Wiped hard drive clean
4-Did a clean install of Win 7
5-Wiped hard drive clean
6-Did a clean install of Win 8.1 (again)
7-First boot of 2nd clean 8.1 install showed custom theme (download in step 2) as desktop

Note:
I did establish a Microsoft account as it appeared to be required so it must be collecting some information but what else might it be collecting?

Update: It also installed (step 6) with System Restore disabled (which I did right after the first install: step 1).

The previous Windows 8.1 configuration data has been stored and it is being synced to your current install. To avoid that you need to turn syncing off.

Hi vrosa,

Thanks for that logical explanation. However, I was sure I saw an eyeball staring at me from the top-right corner of the screen... or maybe it was just that Siameze Fighting Fish blowing a few more air bubbles.

Thanks again,

JustATest

That was Google watching you!!

Brooklyn567 said:

That was Google watching you!!

Click to expand...

Aha! I knew I recognized those eyes!

If you provide a invalid E-mail id or password during install, it will give you the opportunity to create a Local Account to login with. I did this last night and it worked great.

After you've disabled sync, you can delete any previously synced data from your account here.

Reference.