Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

videocardz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 671 posts

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#171

Post by stego-tech »

orbital-decay wrote: post #128
devttyeu wrote: post #20

This is so much worse that the title makes it out to be: 1. Your OS installs malware (technically manufacturers software) from a 3rd party vendor in background, zero user interaction 2. Happens as soon as you or anyone with physical access plug in a device into the HDMI port 3. That malware has internet and full system access, no sandboxing 4. It starts with every system boot 5. This software gets installed when you…

>This situation has.. no precedent as far as I can tell.. Printer, mouse, tablet and display tablet makers use this to insert their crapware since at least Windows Vista or Windows 7, I think. The last one I remember is plugging a Razer mouse just to watch it instantly pulling 1.5GB of bloated junk with "telemetry" exfiltrating the data from my gaming PC in realtime. At least it doesn't leave my mouse in a non-workin…

This. Microsoft has chosen to allow this functionality, despite it being a very clear breach of trust with customers.

LG/Dell/et al should be shamed and blamed for even trying this shit in the first place, but it’s Microsoft who holds the blame for allowing such malware and spyware trash through their own update service.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#172

Post by tremon »

Saris wrote: post #154
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do we even have that lever For plug-and-play devices with multiple configuration knobs. It is nice to be able to click through a printer wizard to configure how one wants to print their documents. Likewise with an audio interface: loopback settings, codec, sampling rate, gain and volume of channels, etc. Or consider a USB CNC mill; configuring things like milling revolution rate, setting which bit is installed,…

Oh definitely, it's more a question of why Microsoft allows any 'driver utility' to have internet access or do anything outside of just configuring the hardware.

> why Microsoft allows any 'driver utility' to have internet access

Firmware updates for devices are not a thing in your world?

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#174

Post by driverdan »

AlienRobot wrote: post #120
Someone1234 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth noting that gpedit.msc isn't included in Windows Home editions (although there are unsupported ways of adding it). This is also technically asking a lot for working around issues that shouldn't exist. Microsoft needs to intervene here, this cannot be a normal expectation for using their product.

Me on Windows 7: I don't want to use Linux, you have to keep configuring every single thing so it works. Me on Linux: I don't want to use Windows, you have to keep configuring every single thing so it doesn't show ads.

Can you even disable all the ads on Windows 11?

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#175

Post by Havoc »

Why are hardware manufacturers so shit at software?

Whether it’s router safety or NVIDIA software hammering DNS servers hundreds of thousands of times or this. Across the board they seem below average competent when it comes to software. I get that they’re specializing on hardware but why so very bad?

Edit. This isn’t even the only thread today. See TPlink fucking up on leaking your GPS coordinates also on front page

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#176

Post by gambiting »

regexorcist wrote: post #166

Seriously, why use Windows in 2026? Such a hideous OS and ecosystem with endless malware, backdoors, and dark patterns.

IMHO it's the best OS as a games developer, Visual Studio just doesn't have anything remotely close. And all console toolchains are windows only. But genuinely as a C++ dev I much much much prefer it over MacOS or even Linux for work.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#177

Post by Grombobulous »

ihsw wrote: post #121
embedding-shape wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This situation has.. no precedent as far as I can tell.. Microsoft has been allowing this sort of ludicrous behavior for decades at this point, it's not a new issue. What's new is how visible LG made their malware, compared to previous auto-installs that happen like this, where they try to make the thing not so in your face, as they know there will be a huge backlash. I don't know what Microsoft is thinking even al…

If you have been reading the news about Windows 11 then I will enlighten you -- they view the Windows 11 consumer business as a cost center that must be mitigated. As such, all manner of monetization has been approved and it will continued to be approved without regard for user experience. This article obviates that this is not an LG problem, it is a Microsoft problem. Also, don't fool yourself if you think this won'…

Just look at Microsoft’s revenue breakdown that they publish. Windows revenue is alarmingly small.

I don’t think it’s a loss leader but Microsoft gets almost nothing from OEM Windows licenses and basically nobody buys it retail.

This is not coming to the Linux world. The moment this sort of thing happens, distros get forked.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#178

Post by threetonesun »

coldtea wrote: post #164
joe_mamba wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don't know what Microsoft is thinking even allowing and enabling this sort of thing This has been a feature since Windows 7, and it worked great since it would pull all necessary drivers after installation without you going hunting on the internet like in the Windows XP days. Just that no HW manufacturer thought to push spyware in their driver repos at that point to improve some team's KPIs.

> and it worked great since it would pull all necessary drivers after installation without you going hunting on the internet like in the Windows XP days. A driver shouldn't be a front-facing program that shows ads of any kind. It should be sandboxed and follow strict APIs to talk to the OS and that's it - any extra options should be shown inline in the main e.g. printer or mouse dialog.

And then what, ever single gaming mouse/keyboard config is going to appear in the Windows UI dialog? I think extra options in an app is fine, but you should have to download it. At which point who knows what you’ve opened yourself to but at least you chose to do it.

Re: LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

#179

Post by HighGoldstein »

GuestFAUniverse wrote: post #173

Oh, come on! LG force fed people with ads on TVs. And now everybody acts surprised? Do. Not. Buy. LG. There are a lot of decent alternatives. Stop buying from the sick heads.

> Do. Not. Buy. LG.

> There are a lot of decent alternatives.

Can you name them? Dell and Samsung are the main competitors for displays as far as I'm aware, Dell tends to be hit-or-miss when it comes to monitor features and quality, Samsung's high end displays come preloaded with a whole OS. The monitor market is really in the toilet.

Post reply on HN