Nothing to do with Windows? Are we sure about that? Asus is a Windows OEM that pre installs Windows and has enough privileged access to insert a surreptitious executable compiled specifically for Windows.

Yes, agreed, if they chose a *nix like OS and they had root, they could do the same thing and that would be equally shitty. It is Windows OEMs that exhibit this kind of fsckery and yes we do have a choice.