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LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

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

#201

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.

Edited with another method.

Also found in the GUI:

  System > About > Advanced System Settings link > Hardware tab > Device installation settings
  Do you want to automatically download manufacturers' apps for your devices?
  set to No
The default setting has been "Yes" for a very long time but most monitors over the years have simply used the default plug-and-play Windows monitor driver instead of installing their own. Triggering no additional downloads for the life of most computers. It just so happens that monitor manufacturers better adhered to the Microsoft guidelines for hardware compatibility earlier and more adequately than most devices. This might very well have been a reliability tactic since graphics drivers were still quite a moving-target shitshow, which in some ways is still ongoing.

So people have mostly never gotten accustomed to monitor drivers having any consideration at all, while drivers for graphics themselves and other new hardware has often had some associated downloads that people have become familiar dealing with.

Looks like LG finally took this long-standing opportunity to do some deeper enshittification than previously imagined. Simply taking advantage of a domino effect that has been lurking for decades.

A couple other related gpedit options if you don't even want the drivers themselves to change after you have gotten them correctly installed:

  gpedit.msc
  Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Internet Communication Management > Internet Communication settings
  Turn off Windows Update device driver searching
  Set to enabled
  OK
  
  gpedit.msc
  Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > Manage updates offered from Windows Update > 
  Do not include drivers with Windows Update
  Set to enabled
  OK

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

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

You’re acting like Microsoft aren’t pushing malware themselves.

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

#203

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.

Edited with another method.

That's great, thank you.

What's frustrating about that is that Microsoft has also gone out of their way to make it difficult to access the [legacy] System Properties (sysdm.cpl), while not fully reimplementing all the features into the Settings app. Including this one.

They've only been working on this 10+ years...

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

#204
post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren’t ms completely dependent on consumer windows for mindshare? I doubt anyone would bother getting into programming with ms tech unless they just happened to run it on their desktop.

MS owns Typescript and NPM and Azure and LinkedIn. I know you meant programming on Windows, but even if Windows disappears, many of us will owe our job to Microsoft.

They own Typescript? I wasn’t aware that they control the organization, but that ought to be easy enough to fork. NPM is a bigger one, but also not too huge. Azure is only used by people who already have Microsoft/Windows buy-in.

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

#205
post #146

Not surprised. My wife CONVINCED me to buy an LG tv instead of my typical dumb monitor. Now I get constant ads and a constant nagging of updates available, that will install more ads and spying features...

LG TV’s are really really good. If you never connect them to the internet. And that rule should be applied to all TV’s. Use an external device like an Apple TV or a self-crafted solution (Roku, Amzn stick, etc all garbage phoning home and listening with Alexa crap) Treat your TV like a computer monitor (ironic here in this context lol)

Image quality may be good (minus the horrible banding and ABL) but I'd put LG and Samsung in the same bag concerning hardware reliability: don't expect it to last much more than the warranty period and if it does, give some offerings to your lucky star.

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

#206

Assuming they don't get a revenue cut, pushing back on Microsoft can in principle be effective here. Microsoft decides what happens here, and presumably today they just take it on trust that hardware makers know what software to install. New driver? Sure. McSpam installer? OK. Maybe they have a guideline saying "Don't ship unrelated garbage" but today it's not enforced because why would you do that? If the Microsoft…

Ah, the usual take. Want to sign everything before it can run, but take responsibility for nothing. And when in doubt, well, the computer did it.

When do we start calling out this crap?

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

#207
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering if we in Europe gets vastly different experience compared to Americans or elsewhere in the world. People complain about LG having ads everywhere in the monitors, displays and what not, but none of our LG products (bought and used in Spain) have any ads anywhere. I'm sitting here with a LG monitor and our main TV is a LG OLED TV, neither of them have ads anywhere, although I haven't booted Windows in a c…

> Americans are receiving more ads than in other parts of the world Ads aren't free, so yes, it would stand to reason that people in the largest consumer market in the world might garner more ad spend.

The cost of ads already accounts for the audience. Ads in the US are more expensive, so the number of ads people see should be roughly the same despite higher ad spend.

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

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago, plugging in a Razer USB mouse made Windows download and run a installer from which the current user could start PowerShell with administrator privileges. Razer first tried to downplay the issue, but fixed it later. [1] The USB protocol does not have any authentication, just a VendorID/ProductID pair: 2×16 bits that Windows uses for looking up the driver package to install. Programming a MCU to use an…

not a usb programmer, but are you saying i can buy any old usb chip and program it with any vendors ID and spoof windows into giving me admin? if so, gj micrcosoft.

You can pretend to be any vid:pid with usb gadget mode. For example with a raspberry pi zero something.

But you can't pretend to be any vendors id, only the ones with vulnerabilities. And the drivers or spyware will be downloaded by windows from the vendor's site, not from your peripheral.

But yes, usb device identifier is done through software/firmware.

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

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yes! Extra apps suck.

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

#210

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…

Buddy let me welcome you to the Internet where your phones and emails are literally listening to your microphone like it’s Watergate. It’s not unprecedented at all for Microsoft or anyone to download what amounts to spyware. The days of antivirus were replaced by advertising a long time ago. There is no privacy. Most savvy types are hyper aware of every process running on their machine especially those using network…

Savvy types use Linux
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