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.
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2026
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“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.
Yeah this was a significant non answer. "We want to sound like we're doing something without doing anything"
for once i'm not blaming microsoft for adware
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. 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.
There needs to be regulation that divorces commercial interests from the software that let's you use your devices and all telemetry being optional.
The software that facilitates the use of your device must be agnostic.
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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
Cool, a new way to smuggle viruses into corporate environments. Everyone makes sure to disable USB sticks, but you can apparently do similar stuff via HDMI or DP?
Yeah they claim it's safe because it's through their store, but isn't this a direct path to a supply chain attack? One app using electron has one bad npm dependency and it auto installs and updates on every machine? This seems like a security nightmare scenario.
Bu hey marketing gets to put their shit in front of everyone's eyes so who cares.
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.
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.
Don't use Windows? No good reason to use Microsoft as a consumer OS anymore. Alternatives exist. Corps only respond to money. Don't use or buy Microsoft or LG products. As long as you use MS the shitshow will continue. Complaining does nothing.
Enterprise or commercial products might still require MS.
Linux, Mac, BSD, Haiku, ReactOS are just a few operating systems that will work.
Free and "it just works" flavors or Linux are Fedora KDE and Mint. Haiku and ReactOS are still works in progress.
My Linux does not do this shit. get rekt MS and LG.
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 bought an LG TV last year. I has never been online and never will be. It gets served through a streaming box and that's all the info it gets.
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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.
To add to this, below are the group policy and registry locations to change this setting to do the same as the comment above in order to allow for automation. Of course with the disclaimer that you should only use these if you know what you are doing.
Group policy
Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata. Set the policy to enabled.
Registry (also works on Home edition)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Device Metadata. Create a REG_DWORD within called PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork and set the value to 1.
That's insane it's buried so deep in the settings. I get why, but that's terrible
Not from the article, but I have a very simple process that can help people.
Does the monitor you are interested in buying have a built in operating system?
- If yes, don't buy it.
- If no, buy it.
How reliable is this?
Call me cynical or whatever you like, I don’t trust anything that isn’t a physical switch.
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
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.
It's so fucking annoying too
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.
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.
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!
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Good reason not to use LG or Windows.
There are so many surfaces in this world that suffer from wasted potential, are not yet displaying advertisements.
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?
No. It's supposed to be for essential device drivers, and companions apps like webcam image control.
Let me guess...
Users never read prompts, so we have removed them
Kinda like
Users never update, so we have forced that
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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.
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).
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