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LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

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611–620 of 671 posts

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

#611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, kinda. I have new-ish MSI laptop with nvidia and it's still not good enough. I tried on the spare nvme and it just doesn't work well enough with these few games I want. Close but still not there. And Plasma has its own problems (I have it on my work laptop with Fedora).

You have to be very unlucky to find a laptop without Linux support these days. Nvidia’s support towards the Linux developers is better now, but still leaves much to be desired, and gaming, while Steam did an incredible job in making Linux better than Windows for most games, can’t really work miracles if the hardware manufacturer doesn’t care.

It does have Linux support, mostly, it's just that the nvidia support is not good enough if someone doesn't want to run Bazzite or Arch (I don't want to).

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

#612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This isn't accurate at all. The reason people don't get malware on Linux is because they install software through the package manager, via trusted and reviewed repos. And drivers are all built-in to the operating system, not third party (with some exceptions, like nvidia). On most Linux setups you aren't just downloading random junk from the internet and running it. Also the operating system won't install things auto…

I agree that culture makes a difference, but the largest aspect of it is that the average Linux user is fairly technically proficient and would be fairly unlikely to install malware even on Windows.

As for software installation, that is true for software packaged by your distro (for Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora and others, that only includes open-source software by default), and similarly, a lot of Windows software is now available from MS Store. But even on Linux, you'll need to download software manually (e.g., Chrome is not available in default Ubuntu repos, same for Discord, Slack, Teams, VS Code, Dropbox, Spotify and other common software). Even worse, less known dev tools are quite often installed with `curl ... | sh` or equivalent, which is a strictly worse alternative to installers on Windows from a security perspective.

Then, there's the question of phishing, infected torrents, fake movie pirating sites,... Currently, most malware from these sources will target Windows (various .mp4.exe files, Excel macros,...). If Windows users migrated to Linux, malware would adapt and start targeting Linux.

Desktop Linux is currently protected by being a low value target – it has low market share, and most of its users are power users, which makes them harder to trick. The opposite is true for server and embedded Linux, and it's a frequent malware target as a result.

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

#613

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…

LG Electronics display monitor as Trojan Horse Except this Trojan Horse isn't offered for free

And the old horse you had lying around might also become Trojan now. Yuck.

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

#614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly yeah MS should get all the flack (which is mostly deserved) of this Manufacturer does whatever crap they want with "it works" and then MS gets the complaints A driver should only be that. A driver

> A driver should only be that. A driver What does a monitor even need a driver for? I presume if you plug one of these into a Mac or a Linux box it’s still going to function.

My LG rotates, so there's a driver for that. That's all I know for sure. I didn't install the drivers.

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

#615
post #423
post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The monitor should absolutely take the major part of the blame by being the source of the malware and poisoning the system for everyone else.

its not the source though is it? its not like it's downloaded via the hdmi cable, it comes from Microsoft that offer the service of installing crap

now explain to the class who uploaded it to Windows Update service

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

#616
post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just a parallel fact, no one's "acting" like anything? What were you actually trying to say?

I am saying that people here seem to be appealing to Microsoft as an authority that should be interested in stopping this, perhaps because they are morally superior or concerned about their reputation. They are not.

No, Microsoft inflicted this upon themselves. They introduced driver vetoing long ago specifically for this purpose (at the cost of certain amount of user freedom), and have established the criteria for it, but barely ever enforce most of these criteria that aren't related to hard OS stability (and sometimes even those that are related), because that might upset the vendors.

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

#617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living in China, in my experience there are more ads than anywhere else I have been. My TV’s homescreen is just ads, every app has constant ads after each action there is basically a popup. There are even more ‘grey area’ ads, my whole scooter and door is plastered with the same ad for borrowing money, just different color and number, but literally 40 around my front door. On the rolling shutters of stores there are…

Not to mention the crazy amount of spam calls and messages everyday :/

Average experience in public transport: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/slDovLCMnl--u2rEMYWD_A

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

#618

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.

Dell is good. Buy the good (not cheap) Dells and you get the good quality with the features that actually matter.

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

#619

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 2000 was incredible. It was so sleek, fast and worked so much better than XP. I'm sure it still required a lot of tinkering compared to a modern OS, but I still miss it.

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

#620
post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but aren't even using it to block these contraptions Even worse, this one is installed via Windows update. I have an LG monitor and noticed the stupid LG app all of the sudden, uninstalled it, and saw it pop up again as an update in Windows update. Microsoft is actively enabling this behavior.

I don't understand how this is legal. Isn't this malware? Isn't it illegal to install malware on someone's computer without their permission? Or is this very illegal, but nobody cares about that anymore?

> Isn't this malware?

The definition of malware was twisted by the tech giants to exclude their spying practices. Spyware is only spyware if it is not made or blessed by Microsoft, Google or Apple.

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