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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

#211

Post by nottorp »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #135
mrbluecoat wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very helpful, thank you. But it does remind me of that Yzma quote in The Emperor's New Groove: "Why do we even have that lever?"

> 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,…

> It is nice to be able to click

You said click. This happens without clicking anything.

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

#212

Post by fuzzfactor »

Grombobulous wrote: post #184
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #6

Workaround: gpedit.msc Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata Set to enabled OK On home editions sans gpedit.msc: sysdm.cpl Hardware tab Click Device Installation Settings Under 'Do you want to automatically download manufacturers' apps for your devices?', select 'No' Save Changes

This is getting technical enough that you might as well install Linux if you figure out how to do this. In other words, we all know that regular consumers will never find this and they’ll never understand that their LG software is spyware in the first place.

>regular consumers will never find this and they’ll never understand that their LG software is spyware in the first place.

Keep in mind the well-known quote from so many pages of Microsoft documentation over the decades, where the main useful function of a feature is the only one completely crippled in what's obviously got to be a complete engineering snafu:

"This is by design."

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

#213

Post by dathinab »

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..

depending on how you look at it it has quite a bit of precedence as this falls under a long list of MS shipping "intended behavior most security researcher would assign a CVE and require it to be fixed as min. requirement for Windows usage in any company"

other wtf. microslop cases include:

- "install arbitrary software w. admin rights hooks" in BIOS which theoretically is there to install BIOS update software but there had been cases of 1. it installing other unwanted software, 2. the updater not fulfilling most minimal security standards (i.e. similar, due to 2. maybe even worse then the monitor case)

- "on boot without password requirement boot arbitrary stuff from a USB stick if correctly named" allowing a trivial bypass of TPM based full disk encryption, yes different thing but another "MS without authentication runs potentially harmful 3rd party software"

- "init scripts on USB devices", I think they stopped doing that

- ...

given that Microsofts security researchers are definitely _not_ incompetent idiots, you can safely assume that all of this features where implemented knowing what user hostile hazards they are and against their own security teams recommendations (or bypassing that team knowing they would say "wtf. no", or similar)

most absurdly MS has in all of this cases enough means to enforce a "just drivers no ad-ware/spy-ware or you get banned" policy, and could do it in a way where they still allow non-allow-listed/ban-listed hooks to be run iff the user consented to it with appropriate warnings and "remember this decision" functionality in case they say no (which besides other aspects might be relevant from a "not steeping onto anti-trust landmines" POV, through mostly older judgements as the US kinda moved from hindering oligopoly to pushing for it).

combine that with the huge f*-up of Azure in the past and their systematic mishandling of it, and no indication they will change this behavior, I really don't understand how any Company/Government agency could trust them

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

#215

Post by nottorp »

BatteryMountain wrote: post #97
delusional wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blizzard Entertainment You mean "Microsoft Xbox Activision Blizzard King Bethesda Mojang"? I wish you luck with your boycott.

I've successfully avoided these companies the last 5 years. Gaming as a whole is dead for me, I just play a couple of old games now & then. The culture is toast too, not just bad games or expensive hardware. So not really losing much sleep over any of this. I have linux on all my machines, so I really only play the one's that perform well on linux. Haven't played online multiplayer games since ~2013. Many of us are l…

> Gaming as a whole is dead for me

There are millions of indies out there. Some are worth the time. It's a bit of a problem to figure out which though.

> Haven't played online multiplayer games since ~2013

I don't think there are any non predatory online multiplayer games since 2013 :)

And there are many online multiplayer games that would have been really good as single player.

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

#216

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

Someone1234 wrote: post #203
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

*.cpl, *.msc, etc are Windows sysadmins' (and developers') bread and butter; Microsoft will never get rid of them. I am betting (maybe hoping...?) that Windows 12 will undo the changes in Windows 8, 10, and 11 as bad experiments and return to what Windows has done best, which is discoverable GUI configuration. Let's see.

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

#217

Post by Ciantic »

I also discovered that these days motherboards come with a payload in their chipset, which gets installed automatically in background unless you figure out to turn it off from BIOS before installing Windows. In my case it was bunch of ASUS useless stuff, not just drivers, some "Armoury Crate" etc. Which just keeps running in background. I've switched to KDE, that kind of solved itself.

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

#218

Post by BoingBoomTschak »

grayhatter wrote: post #134

So I own 5 LG monitors. But now I can't buy LG. I also refuse to support Samsung. Are there any high quality panel manufacturers left that aren't run huge pieces of shit? Or at least try to respect the people buying their hardware?

Panel? Not really since Panasonic exited the market.

For complete monitors, the sole make I trust is Eizo but they only make professional (business or photography) products these days, and I'm _not_ going back to 60 Hz. Dell doesn't deserve trust but their UltraSharp line usually is "okay" even if my U2724D has uniformity issues near the bottom. Iiyama also remains a good one in my books.

But if you want OLED, abandon all hope. The technology is so compromised and the market so monopolized by the collective Market for Lemons style race to the bottom targeting gaymers that I intentionally went for IPS black (yes, LG.display, I know...) instead.

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

#219

Post by rkourdis »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #6

Workaround: gpedit.msc Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata Set to enabled OK On home editions sans gpedit.msc: sysdm.cpl Hardware tab Click Device Installation Settings Under 'Do you want to automatically download manufacturers' apps for your devices?', select 'No' Save Changes

I had a mouse that would keep on installing its driver when plugged in, even with this setting off.

I remember Windows keeping a cache of autodownloaded drivers ("Driver Store") and reinstalling them when the device is plugged in, so the mouse bloatware kept on coming back.

Is this still the case?

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

#220

Post by Someone1234 »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #216
Someone1234 wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

*.cpl, *.msc, etc are Windows sysadmins' (and developers') bread and butter; Microsoft will never get rid of them. I am betting (maybe hoping...?) that Windows 12 will undo the changes in Windows 8, 10, and 11 as bad experiments and return to what Windows has done best, which is discoverable GUI configuration. Let's see.

You're much more "glass half full" than me, but one can dream.
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