LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

Posted by baranul 2 days ago

LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent(videocardz.com)

1179 points | 599 commentspage 5

ninalanyon 1 day ago|

Why does a monitor install anything at all? Why does it even have a mechanism to do so?

winstonwinston 2 days ago||

Microsoft can remove device driver crapware from being distributed via windows update if you can get their attention on this.

boomskats 2 days ago||

Not great, but also not at all surprising.

Not sure about other solutions, but one suggested workaround here would be to silently uninstall Windows without consent.

mfro 2 days ago||

Fun fact, Gigabyte motherboards do the same thing. Thankfully they give you an option to disable it in BIOS.

guax 1 day ago|

Jeez, I had to search because this is baffling to me but alas, there it is:

> Gigabyte's UEFI firmware leverages WPBT to drop an executable—specifically GigabyteUpdateService.exe—into the Windows %SystemRoot%\system32\ directory during the early stages of the boot process. This executable automatically connects to the internet to download and install Gigabyte's auto-update application, often referred to as the "APP Center".

rbanffy 2 days ago||

At this point, such shenanigans are to be expected when using Windows.

I guess my next machine will have a VGA port ;-)

And no Windows.

userbinator 1 day ago||

VGA still has EDID which this is based on, so this situation could've happened in that era if companies were less hostile.

But this is definitely something Windows does.

classified 2 days ago||

As long as you don't need some Windows-only software, Linux is a viable alternative now. KDE Plasma is a great desktop environment and even most games run flawlessly on Steam. And if you do need Windows occasionally, you can put it into a VM.

subscribed 2 days ago||

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).

rbanffy 1 day ago||

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.

subscribed 1 day ago||

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).

rbanffy 22 hours ago||

I tend to avoid Nvidia on my laptops, but AI has made them less and less optional. This whole ecosystem dependency on a single hardware provider that can’t publish a reasonable device driver is not the best possible scenario.

astonex 2 days ago||

Shame on Microsoft for allowing this

Telaneo 1 day ago||

My heart aches for those who can't opt out of using Windows.

DevPulse 2 days ago||

I am using an LG ultra wide monitor and have not had any popups or ads.

was8309 2 days ago||

the instructions to enable "Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata" don't work for me w/ W11, any ideas? thanks

was8309 22 hours ago||

modify your Local Group Policy Microsoft Learn DeviceInstallation Policy. Open gpedit.msc, navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation, and set Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata to Enabled

shostack 1 day ago||

Or for anyone on Windows 10 Home

atoav 2 days ago|

Good to know. LG is now on my blacklist.

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