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Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

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Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#101

Post by BinaryIdiot »

pkulak wrote: post #95
SwellJoe wrote: post #76

Jebus, how far the might IBM laptop line has fallen under the leadership of Lenovo. There was a time when a ThinkPad was arguably the best laptop money could buy. Many companies, including Google, would offer a choice between a ThinkPad or a MacBook, because those were the really reliable choices that were free of shovelware. I even considered buying a Lenovo recently when a pretty nice looking ThinkPad was on sale,…

Is it even possible to buy a Windows laptop right now with only the OS installed? This is exactly why I've been recommending Chromebooks to anyone who asks my advice for about a year now.

I think Microsoft sells those in its stores but even then I'm pretty sure they come with a few things but mostly from the manufacturer.

It would sure be nice to bring home a Windows machine that only had Windows on it and any necessary but minor applications from the manufacturer (like a settings application or drivers and not some photo sharing spyware).

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#102

Post by djur »

SwellJoe wrote: post #76

Jebus, how far the might IBM laptop line has fallen under the leadership of Lenovo. There was a time when a ThinkPad was arguably the best laptop money could buy. Many companies, including Google, would offer a choice between a ThinkPad or a MacBook, because those were the really reliable choices that were free of shovelware. I even considered buying a Lenovo recently when a pretty nice looking ThinkPad was on sale,…

I've had great experiences with the ThinkPad T420, but after this news I'll likely never be buying a Lenovo product again. A damn shame.

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#103

Post by Dylan16807 »

cdr wrote: post #86
AlexeyBrin wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your strategy works only if you have a clean copy of the OS or you buy one (since the thread is about Lenovo I assume you are talking about Windows). Typically, a new PC doesn't come anymore with a copy of the OS, but with a hidden recovery partition that will basically let you do a factory reset (meaning all the crap will show up again).

Microsoft itself has provided Windows installation media for download since Windows 8, including Windows 7 media. All you have to do is read your key off BIOS or the sticker. And of course Windows 10 will be a free download.

Free? I thought that was only if you already had 7 or 8 installed.

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#104

Post by Maakuth »

rozap wrote: post #89
superuser2 wrote: post #73

Lenovo was the last respected PC laptop brand. Is there anyone I can trust to sell me a well-made laptop anymore besides Apple?

Asus is about it.

I thought so too, but my recent experience with a Zenbook has changed my view. WiFi drivers were so bad it took half a year after my purchase before the connection became stable (not dropping every 15 minutes requiring a reboot). Touchpad drivers were also a mess with awful kinetic scrolling. And just couple of weeks ago it stopped booting Windows altogehter (something related to ACPI I guess, Linux works if I don't use suspend). Conveniently one month after the expiration of the warranty.

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#106

Post by bharad »

1. I connect to https://encrypted.google.com/ on Firefox and the certificate says it is verified by SuperFish.

2. Also, my broswer.newtab.url was changed to some URL (http://homepage-web.com/?s=lenovo&m=tab) instead of the default about:newtab

Steps to remove VisualDiscovery / Superfish

1. Home menu, search for Administrator tools 2. Open services 3. Find the VisualDiscovery service. Stop the service. Right click properties. Set "Startup type" to Disabled

4. Start -> Control panel 5. Add/ remove programs 6. Find Superfish and uninstall

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#108

Post by downandout »

kentonv wrote: post #5

This is much worse than just installing adware. They install a web proxy which MITMs all web connections, including HTTPS by means of a pre-installed trusted root certificate. The root certificate is the same across all installs, and the private key is present on the machine (necessarily, to operate the proxy): https://twitter.com/fugueish/status/568258997578371072 Someone will extract the private key in the next few…

>They install a web proxy which MITMs all web connections, including HTTPS by means of a pre-installed trusted root certificate.

That's the odd part of this. Browser plugins can modify the DOM (insert ads, change search results, etc) without proxying anything. So why do it? I wonder if they were fishing for an NSA contract to further monetize the installs.

Re: Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

#110

Post by taspeotis »

bharad wrote: post #106

1. I connect to https://encrypted.google.com/ on Firefox and the certificate says it is verified by SuperFish. 2. Also, my broswer.newtab.url was changed to some URL ( http://homepage-web.com/?s=lenovo&m=tab ) instead of the default about:newtab Steps to remove VisualDiscovery / Superfish 1. Home menu, search for Administrator tools 2. Open services 3. Find the VisualDiscovery service. Stop the service. Right click p…

From what I understand, you need to go one further and spelunk through your local machine certificate stores and remove any Superfish certificates. They are not uninstalled.
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