The difference is you can remove the LG adware without any serious downsides. Removing auto-installing drivers would have serious downsides for the average person (meaning not cyberspace experts on forums such as this).
Over/under on the use of coinstallers as a mechanism with a "special" USB stick with a certain VID/PID pair to download a Microsoft-sanctioned "break into this machine" driver?
... to maybe go with that Yellowkey Bitlocker bypass?
I decided I would never buy an LG monitor after mine broke and I had it shipped back three times for diag and repair. Each time it broke again soon after. They finally agreed to RMA it, but that didn’t mean a new replacement, it meant a refund, and not even for the whole price I had paid. Unfortunately the price had gone up a few hundred dollars since then, so I couldn’t even buy a replacement. This basically means they sold me a junk monitor I had to deal with for a year and then tried to get me to give them an extra $300 to roll the dice that the next one would work properly. I bought a BENQ instead, and it’s been solid.
They for a few years had 4K panels that would “blow out” in the corners over time, worse they where a panel supplier to other vendors (including Dell), of the three 4K lg monitors I had two had it happen but the last one I bought didn’t and they apparently fixed the issue at some point.
It was super annoying because their support was useless.
It put me off LG but as they do make panels for others they are hard to avoid.
I have an LG monitor... and while running Linux, will definitely not be buying another... this is ridiculous. I've been weary of "smart" TVs for a long while, WTF do you need a microphone on a TV?!?
If I buy a TV and it doesn't work without connecting to the internet, I'm simply going to return it. Changing this after the fact should mean a class action lawsuit. It's ridiculous, and MS should absolutely restrict this kind of crap... They (Microsoft) auto-load the software for Logitec mice and cameras as well, but at least they (Logitech) aren't injecting ad/spyware.
It's getting really hard to find a solid, reputable brand of screen manufacturers that don't pull this kind of crap. I swore off Samsung screens after their popup ads in phones and TVs. LG was my next choice but this is deterring me even further.
At what points do ads just stop being effective? We're so saturated with them in every part of our life that I wonder when we just stop noticing the contents
I have the same dual 32" LG setup at home and the dayjob, and have never had any issues or any requirements to install anything for them to work. That said, they're QHD, not 4k or 5k, and probably 6 years old. I'm not a gamer or a high-fidelity consumer, needing the displays to be dumb and reliable at rendering text and the web.
Keen to hear other recommendations. My DELL screen is working quite nicely but has weird burn in problems when connected through a Thunderbolt dock. What other brands (apart from the insanely priced Apple screens) still make high quality, reputable screens?
I was about to comment in wonder that people deliberately download and install hardware-related craplets deliberately, which is something my parents would do. (Creative Labs used to be very bad about this.) Then I realized there's now a (MS-approved!) mechanism by which devices can just ask Windows "Hey, mind installing this silently for me?".
Choosing wisely doesn't prevent any given manufacturer from adding crap like this in the future. They might not push out adware today, but nothing seems to stop them from doing so in the future.
That's what makes the LG controversy uncomfortable to me: the McAfee ads were pushed out years after some owners purchased their monitors.
Which is something that should just be jail-time-for-decision-makers illegal. That tech companies think they retain some kind of ownership over things they have sold needs to end.
I would simply disable windows update. It always seemed insane to me that the solution to preventing RCE was to open an RCE channel to basically every provider that has installed a driver or an application on your machine.
Each auto-update is by definition remote code execution.
If only disabling windows update were simple nowadays. This isn't the sort of thing that should require people to have to mess around in the registry just to not get spied on
Best thing I've done - monitor wise - is buy a 2019 iMac 5k and convert it to work as an external display. Such a beautiful display. Only downside is once you go 5k it's very hard to go back to any lower resolution. I ended up converting a (much cheaper) 2015 iMac 5k for use in the office.
I would totally prefer to buy something without spyware. But so far I have not found a good alternative to my 42" C-series OLED. You do have to carefully configure it to not phone home, but besides that (and some minor problems with peak brightness), it's great. If there was a non-spyware replacement, I'd buy it.
Same day after I saw this story, I noticed a new unfamiliar system tray icon, and it was the installer for this thing! It hadn't installed yet, and I was able to remove it, but I guess I have to replace one of our house monitors now.
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[ 0.21 ms ] story [ 33.7 ms ] threadRemember "smart" has a double meaning. It also refers to pain as in "smarting".
What a dirty, scummy move. Never buying an LG product again.
(Also a Linux user, so this doesn't affect me, but this is gross.)
I have an LG TV that I've never allowed to connect to a network, and I'm definitely keeping it that way.
... to maybe go with that Yellowkey Bitlocker bypass?
Tinfoil hats, I know.
It was super annoying because their support was useless.
It put me off LG but as they do make panels for others they are hard to avoid.
If I buy a TV and it doesn't work without connecting to the internet, I'm simply going to return it. Changing this after the fact should mean a class action lawsuit. It's ridiculous, and MS should absolutely restrict this kind of crap... They (Microsoft) auto-load the software for Logitec mice and cameras as well, but at least they (Logitech) aren't injecting ad/spyware.
LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956688
Update: Microsoft responds to LG monitors installing McAfee ads on Windows
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/07/microsoft-responds-t... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49028024)
* https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-monitors/
Ghastly.
That's what makes the LG controversy uncomfortable to me: the McAfee ads were pushed out years after some owners purchased their monitors.
Each auto-update is by definition remote code execution.
LG monitors are not behaving idiotically on Linux. Just saying.
- Display drivers don't need access to the network
- Display drivers don't need to write to the window manager
- Display drivers just need to display the data that needs displayed
- If you sign a driver, you take responsibility for it. Else just leave people run any driver they see fit
In fact, what I really want is just a display. They can keep their “smart” stuff; I'm not interested.
But LG already did that 10 years ago. If you didn't care then, why do you care now?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6778397