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.
I believe they were claiming it is installed the same as a driver, not that it’s a driver in the literal sense. That was my understanding of it too, so is that wrong? Surely Windows looks for drivers, downloads them, and this gets installed alongside. If it is not listed as a driver then why is Windows installing it? Is this a Windows issue of giving companies the ability to install optional crap or is it a company issue of hiding optional crap inside their “driver” packages?
Great, add it to the list of hundreds of others.
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.
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, so we punished our end users because of something a manufacturer did.”
Like, I get the sentiment. But “no pushing drivers” ain’t the solution.
I also have to wonder if M$ can do that? If the drivers are being loaded by the monitor and not something like windows update, M$ has virtually no control over it.
Monitors do not need drivers. There would be no user impact to an ban on automatic installation of LG drivers.
I mean, they absolutely do. You can usually get away with the generics but I’ve run across my fair share of monitors that support minimum resolutions until the appropriate driver is installed.
This is the problem with Display Port / HDMI. VGA was so much better in a lot of ways. Video goes out, monitor displayed it or didn’t but no “you don’t have some special software to do a resolution”. None of the "oh I have to unplug it and replug it or reboot to wake the stupid video port up. You just plug in cable.
Display port is a bunch of annoying things that are unnecessary IMO and they refuse to fix.
punished the users by having them install non-essential drivers manually?
If the drivers are being loaded by the monitor and not something like windows update, M$ has virtually no control over it.
the drivers are not loaded by the monitor. they are loaded by windows update. like when your motherboard loads bloatware into your windows install, that too is actually windows update doing it for the request of the motherboard. it would be pretty wild if peripherals could install random software without coordination of the OS
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?
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.
How about we don’t compress our local Fricken wired video to our monitor. I swear I just want modern dumb VGA again - having to fight the auto smart crap is such a pita.
Yes all those features (compression is one of many ) are stupid, few if any actually use them, and it unnecessarily complicates everything.
I even hate edid. It keeps kvms from working.
We’ve connected with the team at LG and as an immediate next step, they have agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up from their app. We appreciate LG working with us toward a shared goal of a better experience for our mutual customers. We will keep improving here with our ecosystem partners.
Corpo speech is awful, but this AI corpo speech somehow is even worse. Someone literally asked AI to come up with some transparent lies to make people believe that they care
Good job! As part of a required test protocol, we will stop enhancing the truth in three… Two… One.
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?
better than
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?
Old school way was installing peripheral, or even sometimes internal hardware drivers and apps, manually from the vendors website or disk. Modern Windows checks your hardware and the vendors send MS updates to the MS “repository” of drivers and apps. As part of the auto updates Microsoft pushes your system will be fed vendor updates for your hardware.
For the layperson this is helpful, but it is annoying as heck when you have your own application that needs a specific driver version and windows keeps trying to overwrite it.
“Serial killer responds to drive by shooting.”
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
Most ppl doesn’t want this but won’t make research before a buy. So executive at LG dont have clear data that show it and so it continue. And competitor see this and think why aren’t we doing the same. We litteraly live in a world where we have ads in subscription for streaming service. The normal ppl have a really high tolerance to bs
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.
Depending on the repair, it can be cheaper to buy a new fridge. Most modern refrigerators aren’t designed to have their compressor easily replaced for example.
I mean, it’s possible, if you really fuck it up in some way, but not from regular use.
Replacing the compressor once is still going to be cheaper than replacing a fridge every 5 years.
In my basement I have a freezer from the 60s. It needs to be defrosted every year or two, but aside from that it’s never needed servicing, not once. I’m telling you, the older it is, the longer it will last.
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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.
Remember when autorun.ini was considered harmful?
Well LG will probably go to my boycott list
We appreciate LG working with us toward a shared goal of a better experience for our mutual customers.
Thanks LG for their professionalism and sportsmanship. We can always count on Microsoft and LG to make people’s live better! /s
