Gamers Nexus tested an LG monitor and found it automatically installs an LG app on a Windows system without asking permission, which has access to "All System Resources" and includes McAfee ads.
Is there a recommended monitor manufacturer? LG is obviously out and it seems Samsung could eventually pull similar crap if they wanted to. I know for smart tv’s to never allow them to touch the internet and just plug in a HTPC or Apple TV/Shield TV.
But is there a particular brand that might be “safer” to invest in today and not worry 1,2,3 years from now they push out similar adware?
Really any monitor manufacturer could end up doing something like this, I see it as more of a windows problem. I don’t think on Linux or macOS they can install random apps like that.
If you’re on windows then you should set the group policy to disable that behavior.
how?
Windows PG Guide has been “coming soon” for a v long time.
I only know about this Article from the University of Ulm. It is in German, but you can translate it.
thanks yes I can translate it. But, if I may, when was this article dated? I don’t see a date.
gpedit.msc → Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → System → Device Installation
“Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata” set to Enabled
If you don’t have access to the Group Policy, you can create a new value from the Windows Registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
Create a new key named “Device Metadata”, create a new 32-Bit DWORD value inside of “Device Metadata” named “PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork” with the value set to 1 and then reboot your PC.
Haven’t tested the registry method myself though.
Can’t one by pass it not installing the LG app from the Windows update or uninstalling it?
It’s installed automatically without asking you unless you edit your group policy settings, if you uninstall it that’ll probably be fine but the app is an older style Windows Desktop app instead of a newer MSIX so there’s bound to be some residual crud after you uninstall it.
I haven’t found any examples of people saying this happens but I would assume it could potentially be reinstalled at any time as well.
Yeah this is a Windows thing - obviously a monitor can’t install software by itself. The nearest I’ve seen is USB devices having a virtual drive with drivers on them. This is a “Microsoft allows auto installation of shitware alongside the helpful auto-download of drivers” issue. They do it for my Logitech mouse as well but at least as far as I know that is a genuine utility and not spyware.
We use LG monitors at work but turn this kind of stuff off.
But yes they are a bit known for spyware, my LG smart TV is full of it so I don’t even allow it on the network, it acts as a dumb TV.
Thx. Is it possible for MS to reverse these things with updates rights?