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LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

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411–420 of 671 posts

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

#411

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…

Logitech have been doing this for years

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

#413
I once plugged in a Logitech keyboard on a fresh system and got a colorful branded popup covering several inches of screen real estate in the bottom right corner. It was urging me to download some Logitech software.

As far as I know, the source of the graphics was not the unifying receiver that I plugged in the USB port, and the notification was not using any OS API meant for hardware to be avle to prompt the user for additional download. It was a Logitech-built DLL shipped and loaded by the operating system as part of some default driver for the Logitech keyboard.

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

#414

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.

>And then what, ever single gaming mouse/keyboard config is going to appear in the Windows UI dialog?

Yes. Via some standard protocol to show checkboxes, radio buttons, drop down selections, etc.

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

#415
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Razer was always low quality garbage at premium prices. Gamer marketing for you.

What do you recommend instead? In my opinion the Razer mice are always superior for FPS.

You literally need two or three mouse buttons for a FPS game. This argument might have worked if you said MMO because there’s a million abilities you can use but there’s absolutely nothing special about Razer mice when it comes to FPS specifically.

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

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And then what, ever single gaming mouse/keyboard config is going to appear in the Windows UI dialog? Actually, why not? The driver could declare a list/tree of extra configurable options, and windows could generate a configuration dialog for them. I think this is already is thing in Windows for NICs, I remember seeing TCP offload options when I go into properties for a NIC in the device manager. You just need to ma…

As a user I agree, but I think this misunderstands the Windows market. Forget about mice for a second, if you look at GPU drivers between Linux and Windows on Linux they... just work, and you can use some apps to modify exposed features, like you said. On Windows out of the box they kind of work, but you really need a manufacturer's software suite to take full advantage of them, and that software suite is, surprise,…

>On Windows out of the box they kind of work, but you really need a manufacturer's software suite to take full advantage of them, and that software suite is, surprise, an advertising and analytics platform, a situation I think both Microsoft and the peripheral manufacturers are very happy with.

What we're saying is this shouldn't be allowed by the OS to begin with. Not to merely use the peripheral in any case.

Whether Microsoft is happy with allowing it, is another matter.

Perhaps some law accompanied with hefty fines can make them less happy doing it.

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

#418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in my Window days. I would start the driver installation and let it sit. Open the temp folder and copy content the install extracted to a new directory. Cancel the installation. Open Device Manager and install the drivers from there so non of the excessive bloat was installed. This worked greater with being an IT consultant. The client's machine to run smoother and drivers installed fast since they would buy mul…

To be fair Microsoft was always shitware. I don’t remember a time when using a Windows machine just worked, didn’t take up gigabytes of space, didn’t crash, and didn’t get messed up by simply using it requiring a yearly or semi-yearly reinstall.

Windows 3.1? It was only 6 3.5” disks.

To be fair, I had stretches of 2K, XP, 7 and 10 working acceptably.

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

#419

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.

How exactly do you propose to sandbox drivers running in kernel space? Do you even know how drivers work? (I'm guessing no, based on this comment)

First of all, drivers don't have to run in kernel space. Do you know that? I'm guessing no, based on your comment.

Second, we're not talking about the drivers per se, as those aren't what shows you ads, it's the configuration software and accompanying crapware. Did you get that? I'm guessing no, based on your comment.

Third, there are capability-based kernels, microkernels, drivers that are allowed into as restricted bytecode, IOMMU, and several other layers of security. Do you know that? I'm guessing no, based on your comment.

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

#420

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

You know why desktop Linux doesn't have much malware? Because ~no one uses it. That's it. Once you get users, you get malware. The rest of your comment is just as ignorant.

There was malware for systems with 1/1000 the userbase of Linux. Even Amiga and Atari had plenty of it, macOS when it had 2% share, and others.
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