This is being pushed as a driver update. Drivers run in ring 0. LG could be snooping on you at a very low level here.
But they promised that their installer isn't sending any data back to LG!
They didn't promise the app itself isn't snooping or that McAfee isn't snooping, but the installer isn't snooping, they swear!
This is not a driver update. This is adware that is automatically installed with the device being connected. It is the same as how synapse is automatically installed with Razer products. If it was a driver, you wouldn't be able to uninstall the software and have the device still work, not that a monitor needs a driver anyway.
The McAfee ads are just a symptom of a much bigger problem that is Windows allowing 3rd parties to install malware on "your" computer without your consent, or even your knowledge. Which makes Windows itself malware.
always has been
[astronauts_on_the_moon.gif]
🌎 🧑🚀🔫🧑🚀
We need to be the one in control of our computing for it to be 'our' computer, instead of Microsoft's. That requires being able to change what it does via the source code, and sharing those changes with others. Windows is proprietary, no source code and it's illegal to share it - it can never be 'your' computer like that.
From the comments on the article:
- Open Settings → System → About → Advanced system settings → Hardware tab → Device Installation Settings.
- Select No to Automatically download manufacturer apps and icons.
How reliable is this?
Call me cynical or whatever you like, I don’t trust anything that isn’t a physical switch.
I already had it set, and so far my LG monitor hasn't caused an LG software to be installed. But I'm on Windows 10 and I guess there's a chance this software is only for 11.
Microsoft tends to undo settings they don’t like during updates.
Probably reliable until the next "feature and experience update" where they move or remove the setting and default it back to allow for all users again and all the soulless advertisers cum their pants because their malware delivered impression counts just went up again
So LG is on the list of never buy again...good to know...
Pity, they used to make good shit..
I am worried that soon we will need a "decent enough to buy" list because it will be difficult to find anything that is not on the "never buy again" list.
There are only a few companies that make the actual panels (regardless of how the finished TV or monitor was branded), and two of the biggest (LG and Samsung) are the worst offenders in terms of enshittification. It would not take much at all for the availability of new non-enshittified TVs and computer monitors to drop to literally zero.
Seriously. I have an old LG plasma TV that I was planning to replace with an LG, but definitely not now.
I was trying to figure out why someone would install a third party driver for a monitor, of all things, and then I read this
Further, Microsoft allows Universal Windows Platform device apps “to automatically install when the user connects their device to the PC”
Is this for real? Does it at least prompt with a pop-up first?
Let me guess...
Users never read prompts, so we have removed them
Kinda like
Users never update, so we have forced that
It does not prompt it just does it in the background along with the driver install when you first plug it in
That's a bunch of words, but they don't really answer your question about why a monitor needs 3rd party drivers.
Display Port has fancy features like Display Stream Compression where the driver compresses the image going to the screen.
The solution would be for MS to move those features into Windows rather than allow manufacturers flexibility in implementation. MS would get bad publicity for monopoly and then have to deal with fixing Windows for every off brand monitor because the manufacturer didn't follow the standard exactly.
Long time Linux user here.
Microsoft would fuck up their implementation of the standard, monitors would all be designed around Microsoft bugs and then OSs that implement the standard correctly have to break their stuff so that Windows monitors will work.
No. It's supposed to be for essential device drivers, and companions apps like webcam image control.
Any statement by Microsoft that doesn't include, "so we banned them from publishing auto-installed drivers for a year" is an insufficient response to this crime.
Yeah this was a significant non answer. "We want to sound like we're doing something without doing anything"
Many years ago, when I was a PC repair tech, software that would behave like this was generally considered to be malware. Seems a little ironic that they're McAfee ads.
Not really surprised though. That's just how the Windows ecosystem is. I've never seen any other OS constantly support so much weird advertising bullshit all the time.
holy hell.just bought a monitor yesterday. so glad i just narrowly dodged the LG bullet by this ->\<-much and went a different brand. whew omfg...
wait...what am i worried about? i installed linux. hah hahahaha HAHAHAHA. MUAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHAHHAHAHAAAA.
Are you OK?
Installing Linux justifies evil villain laughter, best feeling in the world
Good reason not to use LG or Windows.
My Linux does not do this shit. get rekt MS and LG.
Microsoft responds to accusations that they are selling back door access to their OS, by issuing a vague and obtuse statement, that kind of maybe says that they asked the offenders to stop making the back door's existence so glaringly obvious.
I guess this shows how out of touch I am because how the fuck is a peripheral auto installing software on my computer in the first place? how does Microsoft allow that?
My understanding is that LG broke the TOS and Microsoft asked them to stop instead of penalizing them under the agreement they broke. They wouldn't do this for the average consumer and so the average consumer should jump ship to something else.
..like linux. and then be done with all this shit.
Fyi Microsoft did not respond for comments
Isn’t LG digging their own graves by pissing off their customers so much? No one is going to buy their shit anymore.
But everyone's doing it
LG is such a sketchy company. Their TVs are spyware and their fridges break down faster than any other brans
Honestly, fridges are a total crapshoot these days. If you have a 15+ year old fridge, never replace it, get it repaired, the quality level in new fridges is terrible.
I see this whole LG affair as a good thing. Windows users get shown how fucked up their OS and ecosystem is by this, and LG monitors will drop into the discount zone for users who have Linux and don't have to deal with such shit.
In a sane world you would be correct. In this world you are dreaming, most of the people do not care.
This is such a nothing statement from Microsoft. I mean good on them for asking LG to remove the adware for Mcafee specifically but they don’t say anything about keeping this stuff from other auto-installed apps or making the apps ask for user permission (let alone not enabling this bullshit by default).
Remember when autorun.ini was considered harmful?
There are so many surfaces in this world that suffer from wasted potential, are not yet displaying advertisements.
Well LG will probably go to my boycott list
Probably?
In the video, editor-in-chief Steve Burke said that the publication paid $1,200 for an LG UltraGear 3GX900A-B gaming monitor (the monitor’s price dropped to $600 two days later, Burke said) for testing and replicated the behavior “several times” across “multiple” Windows 11 systems.
After LG Monitor App Installer was installed, a pop-up appeared on the screen’s lower-right corner “on every single boot,” Burke said. Most of the time, the pop-up was a McAfee ad. The publication also reported seeing ads for LG Switch, LG Calibration Studio, LG Dual Controller, and LG Channels on rare occasions.
That right there is enough for me to never buy LG again. $1200 monitor that forces adware on your system without ever even asking to install it? Then there's this...
Once the app is installed, “LG technically possesses permission to use ‘all system resources,’” as well as to “collect geolocation, device data, online activity, contacts, user credentials, transactions, and more,” Burke said.
Yeah, fuck them. Never again.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
