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You have to watch out these days even when installing a fresh copy of Windows as I found out recently, since some motherboards coughASUScough have software in t

by daemin 4y ago

You have to watch out these days even when installing a fresh copy of Windows as I found out recently, since some motherboards coughASUScough have software in the BIOS which can get automatically installed. There's an option that comes up on first boot and I clicked yes thinking it was some drivers, but it was the regular company branded bloatware more or less. Not going to make that mistake again.

Manu40 4y ago
Really? That's new. Mind you, I have basically all but stopped using Asus the moment they started catering their brand towards 'gamers' on reddit.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  Windows allows the firmware to provide a binary that will be executed on first boot (or maybe every boot? not sure) - ASUS is abusing this feature to make their crapware permanent.
- formerly_proven 4y ago
  Not new. Windows Update will by default pull and automatically install drivers and software based on hardware IDs. If you try to uninstall it, it might be "self-healing software" (can't actually uninstall, have to delete services, autostarts and files manually and in the right order) but in any case Windows Update will put it back anyway soon until you disable automatic driver updates completely. GP already mentioned ASUS by name, MSI also does this, their boards install some weird very hard to remove "audio improvement software" or something like that.
  - Manu40 4y ago
    Fair enough. I suppose I should have said "new to me". Also, I stopped using MSI when their motherboards weren't properly supporting Piledriver/Steamroller AMD cpus power and thus thermal requirements. At least, on some of the mid-high tier boards. (It said it could handle a 8350. That apparently was a lie.)
- the_doctah 4y ago
  >they started catering their brand towards 'gamers' on reddit. Slap some RGB on things that don't need it and charge an extra 50 bucks, easy money
devmor 4y ago
I had the same experience recently. It's a rootkit installed by the BIOS to inject the crapware. Immediately returned the ASUS board and got something else. It sucked to tear apart a computer I just built but I don't trust then hardware in my machine now.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
tgsovlerkhgsel 4y ago
Lenovo too. It's called Windows Platform Binary Table, and lets the firmware provide an EXE for Windows to execute on boot. So even if you install a clean OS, this will run, and there is no mandatory prompt (if it's run through this approach and you see a prompt, then the software that was run was nice enough to ask, it was not Windows asking you to confirm whether that is OK).
- m463 4y ago
  Lenovo has a pretty storied history with this sort of thing... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo#Security_and_privacy_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo#Security_and_privacy_in...
- koala_man 4y ago
  > It's called Windows Platform Binary Table When I was in college it was called a hardware rootkit
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Yep, experienced this a few times on their consumer products and even older Thinkpads licensed with Windows 10 Home. It is possible to neuter all (most?) of the bloatware by deleting the associated binaries and wiping all of Lenovo's background processes, but it's still a royal pain-in-the-ass when reinstalling Windows on it. They're easy to shut up with Linux, but my heart weeps for those who insist on using Windows.

by daemin 4y ago

Manu40 4y ago

Really? That's new. Mind you, I have basically all but stopped using Asus the moment they started catering their brand towards 'gamers' on reddit.

Nextgrid 4y ago
Windows allows the firmware to provide a binary that will be executed on first boot (or maybe every boot? not sure) - ASUS is abusing this feature to make their crapware permanent.
formerly_proven 4y ago
Not new. Windows Update will by default pull and automatically install drivers and software based on hardware IDs. If you try to uninstall it, it might be "self-healing software" (can't actually uninstall, have to delete services, autostarts and files manually and in the right order) but in any case Windows Update will put it back anyway soon until you disable automatic driver updates completely. GP already mentioned ASUS by name, MSI also does this, their boards install some weird very hard to remove "audio improvement software" or something like that.
- Manu40 4y ago
  Fair enough. I suppose I should have said "new to me". Also, I stopped using MSI when their motherboards weren't properly supporting Piledriver/Steamroller AMD cpus power and thus thermal requirements. At least, on some of the mid-high tier boards. (It said it could handle a 8350. That apparently was a lie.)
the_doctah 4y ago
>they started catering their brand towards 'gamers' on reddit. Slap some RGB on things that don't need it and charge an extra 50 bucks, easy money

devmor 4y ago

I had the same experience recently. It's a rootkit installed by the BIOS to inject the crapware. Immediately returned the ASUS board and got something else. It sucked to tear apart a computer I just built but I don't trust then hardware in my machine now.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

tgsovlerkhgsel 4y ago

Lenovo too. It's called Windows Platform Binary Table, and lets the firmware provide an EXE for Windows to execute on boot. So even if you install a clean OS, this will run, and there is no mandatory prompt (if it's run through this approach and you see a prompt, then the software that was run was nice enough to ask, it was not Windows asking you to confirm whether that is OK).

m463 4y ago
Lenovo has a pretty storied history with this sort of thing... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo#Security_and_privacy_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo#Security_and_privacy_in...
koala_man 4y ago
> It's called Windows Platform Binary Table When I was in college it was called a hardware rootkit
smoldesu 4y ago
Yep, experienced this a few times on their consumer products and even older Thinkpads licensed with Windows 10 Home. It is possible to neuter all (most?) of the bloatware by deleting the associated binaries and wiping all of Lenovo's background processes, but it's still a royal pain-in-the-ass when reinstalling Windows on it. They're easy to shut up with Linux, but my heart weeps for those who insist on using Windows.