PointGrab ?

[Pete!]

My wife has a computer at her business, that was set up by her son-in-law (Win 8 updated to 8.1).
He had a family license for Norton, so he use that as an AV.
Unknown to her... His license expired, and he diidn't renew it until a month later.
She was unprotected for most of January....

I noticed that the webcam on this computer was always on....
She let me check it...
Attempting to run "Camera", resulted in a notice that the camera was being used by another program.

A scan with Norton "repaired" 27 "risks".
I installed MBAM, a scan found over 200 "PUPs" and one baddie. I let it quarantine them all without even checking what they were.

The webcam was still on....
I installed WinPatrol, and asked her about every running process and start-up item.
She didn't recognize two entries labeled "PointGrab".

The list of programs that could be uninstalled also had two "PointGrab" entries, one was something about "Hand Gesture Control".

I uninstalled them, and the webcam light went out.

Was that some kind of spyware, or a legitimate program?

[Corrine]

It is legitimate software but obviously isn't needed if your wife doesn't use gestures (as a computer navigation tool ;) ) .  I noticed on one of the slides that ASUS includes the software program.  http://www.pointgrab.com/

[Pete!]

Close, but the computer is an Acer :)
Could it have been bundled in a free game or the like?

It's her first computer.
She actually liked Windows 8, because you don't have to know how to use a mouse.
I guess it's possible that she got it deliberately, and then forgot about it.
I hope i didn't uninstall something expensive. :(

[Corrine]

From the Acer website PointGrab Hand Gesture Software:

PointGrab is software that uses your webcam to operate your All-In-One using hand gestures.

If she did use it, you can probably contact support and explain that it was removed by mistake.

I didn't see it listed in programs Acer has listed for download but there are a couple of touch tools mentioned at Acer software for Windows 8 as being preloaded.