I assume that means that we don't have an open door.

The other strange thing is that, after I posted my Question on this site, a pop-up window advised me that Skype signed off and "needs help to sign on."

This is so weird and invasive.

hack or a bot? I have issues with Google trying to get me to merge stuff I don't have. I would never connect one acct to another and don't have anything other than email with that service. I get the pop-ups regularly.

soft account, after doing what you want to do and having made all of your microsoft account privacy and unsync. settings.

I have signed into my microsoft account and then signed out, and everything was normal.

If you go to their website, of course they will prompt you to sign in. Don't go there.

The only time I use my MS account is when I go to their site to download software.

I assume this is Win 10. I gave up on 10 because of issues of privacy and stability. On my computer, 10 runs like Molasses compared to Win 8.

At the moment, I do not have access to a Win 10 computer, so my advice will be general.

You must revert the current account on your computer to a "local account." So, change it from MS account to local on your computer. You configure this somewhere in the "settings" system of panels.

When you sign into your computer using the MS account, it attempts to connect you to their services like One Drive, the app center, and advertising spy bots.

If you use just a local account, it won't bother you as much.

If I wasn't so deeply entrenched in using the advanced functions of Word and Excel, I'd have joyfully abandoned MS years ago.

Good luck.

here is a fix that worked for me on WIFI dropping.

I'll give it a shot.

I do have another problem that may have started the entire avalanche of problems. I received a replacement power charger from Best Buy and my battery has been showing "plugged, but not charging." It doesn't go higher than 46%, I've tried some of the recommended fixes but it is still not working properly.

This may have something to do with the pushing of Microsoft Edge. That was one of the first nuisance pop-ups. It kept claiming that Mozilla was a power hog. I wonder if it's trying to prove a point?

next to the start menu and type in account, the top listing should be account management, clicking on that it will take you to the account settings. You should see a line there that says sign in with a local account instead, click on it and follow the prompts.

That will return you to a local account.

Using a microsoft account does have it's advantages and you can turn all the services you mentioned off but if you just want to revert to a local account without the hassle of trying to figure out how to turn off the things you don't want to use just change back to a local account.

Right now I am only getting a standard vs administrator account.

I know it is confusing but they have two different settings pages.

An alternate way to get to the one that lets you revert is to left click on the notification area down by the clock that looks like a chat bubble and chose all settings. Then click on accounts then you should see what i am talking about on the middleish part of the page that opens.

Just looked and it looks like from where I think you are looking at there is a line that says "make changes to my account in pc settings." clicking on that will bring you to the same place.