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The monitors aren't installing anything. That headline was a lie. It's Windows Update that's installing LG crapware upon seeing relevant hardware IDs. That's w

The monitors aren't installing anything. That headline was a lie. It's Windows Update that's installing LG crapware upon seeing relevant hardware IDs. That's why the problem affected older monitors too - it's the update side that suddenly started to ship malware.

felooboolooomba 3mo ago
> That headline was a lie. Kinda agree but let's call it "misinformed" or something, instead of a lie.
- fauigerzigerk 3mo ago
  I would say it's neither a lie nor misinformed. It 's a punchier headline that can be justified by what the user experiences. The user connects a monitor which causes ads to appear. The rest of this Rube Goldberg contraption is a mere detail.
  - TeMPOraL 3mo ago
    Those details are the only thing that matter. Without them, all you have is superstition.
    - fauigerzigerk 3mo ago
      I disagree. It matters that LG makes ads appear on their customers' screens as a deterministic consequence of connecting one of their monitors. It's not superstition. Of course the details are important on some level. But that doesn't make everything else not matter and it doesn't turn an incomplete explanation into a lie.
      - TeMPOraL 3mo ago
        That's my point: it's not a consequence of connecting a monitor. An external element is making it look like such. This difference tells you that, for example, you cannot fix the problem by fixing the monitor, because the problem does not exist in hardware. It's actually entirely external to the hardware you own, because it exists entirely "in the cloud" (i.e. on MS and LG servers).
        fauigerzigerk 3mo ago
        No you're wrong. It absolutely is a consequence of connecting an LG monitor. Connecting an LG monitor triggers a chain of events that deterministically and deliberately cause these ads to be shown. The hardware alone is not sufficient for this to happen, but if you were to modify or "fix" the monitor (specifically its firmware) so that it no longer identifies as an LG monitor, then it would no longer cause these ads to be shown. In other words, if A causes B and B causes C then it is correct to say that A causes C.
delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
> It's Windows Update that's installing LG crapware upon seeing relevant hardware IDs This is also a misrepresentation. Microsoft has provided LG with a certificate to sign its driver packages with, and allows LG to upload packages to Windows Update, which includes a feature to install sidecar applications. Now, the spirit of this feature is that any application is meant to provide genuine configuration functionality or some graphical front end to the driver's configuration knobs. LG then abused that feature to provide adware. Now, there are millions of hardware vendors. One can't expect that every driver package submission from every vendor is thoroughly vetted every time, this is a matter of trust and respect. Sometimes one actually wants the app that comes with the device, like AMD's and NVIDIA's configuration trays. Even so, I fully expect that after this debacle MS will disable this stuff. There is precedent for this. Synaptics/ELAN/Alps touchpad tray applications largely disappeared after MS implemented precision touchpads somewhere in 2015, and suddenly Windows touchpads became as precise as those on Macs. Likewise with RGB peripherals. Even GPU driver applications have increasingly become less useful as the most important features—power control, adaptive sync, HDR, etc have moved into native Windows settings.
- petesergeant 3mo ago
  > One can't expect that every driver package submission from every vendor is thoroughly vetted every time, this is a matter of trust and respect. Apple seem to do a pretty decent job of just that
  - delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
    The situation is very different on Macs. Apple control almost the entire hardware stack of the machines that macOS runs on. They make it an absolute pain in the neck to run any application not blessed by attestation. This attestation server is also frequently offline. They've also made it very difficult to write things like filesystem drivers, having completely pulled that functionality from more recent versions of macOS. In fact, if I recall correctly one cannot ship a third-party kext on more recent Macs, especially ARM ones. As such, hackintoshing has basically vanished as a hobby. At least on Windows, the most you get is a scare screen saying 'this app is from an unidentified developer'. I know what I'd rather have.
account42 3mo ago
The headline isn't a lie, even if you can technically nitpick it. The manufacturer implemented choices to deliberately install the software when the monitors are connected. The mechanism is not important to why this is outrageous.
- TeMPOraL 3mo ago
  I disagree, the mechanism is the only important thing. Everything else is storytelling and superstition.

felooboolooomba 3mo ago

> That headline was a lie. Kinda agree but let's call it "misinformed" or something, instead of a lie.

fauigerzigerk 3mo ago
I would say it's neither a lie nor misinformed. It 's a punchier headline that can be justified by what the user experiences. The user connects a monitor which causes ads to appear. The rest of this Rube Goldberg contraption is a mere detail.
- TeMPOraL 3mo ago
  Those details are the only thing that matter. Without them, all you have is superstition.
  - fauigerzigerk 3mo ago
    I disagree. It matters that LG makes ads appear on their customers' screens as a deterministic consequence of connecting one of their monitors. It's not superstition. Of course the details are important on some level. But that doesn't make everything else not matter and it doesn't turn an incomplete explanation into a lie.
    - TeMPOraL 3mo ago
      That's my point: it's not a consequence of connecting a monitor. An external element is making it look like such. This difference tells you that, for example, you cannot fix the problem by fixing the monitor, because the problem does not exist in hardware. It's actually entirely external to the hardware you own, because it exists entirely "in the cloud" (i.e. on MS and LG servers).
      - fauigerzigerk 3mo ago
        No you're wrong. It absolutely is a consequence of connecting an LG monitor. Connecting an LG monitor triggers a chain of events that deterministically and deliberately cause these ads to be shown. The hardware alone is not sufficient for this to happen, but if you were to modify or "fix" the monitor (specifically its firmware) so that it no longer identifies as an LG monitor, then it would no longer cause these ads to be shown. In other words, if A causes B and B causes C then it is correct to say that A causes C.

delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago

> It's Windows Update that's installing LG crapware upon seeing relevant hardware IDs This is also a misrepresentation. Microsoft has provided LG with a certificate to sign its driver packages with, and allows LG to upload packages to Windows Update, which includes a feature to install sidecar applications. Now, the spirit of this feature is that any application is meant to provide genuine configuration functionality or some graphical front end to the driver's configuration knobs. LG then abused that feature to provide adware. Now, there are millions of hardware vendors. One can't expect that every driver package submission from every vendor is thoroughly vetted every time, this is a matter of trust and respect. Sometimes one actually wants the app that comes with the device, like AMD's and NVIDIA's configuration trays. Even so, I fully expect that after this debacle MS will disable this stuff. There is precedent for this. Synaptics/ELAN/Alps touchpad tray applications largely disappeared after MS implemented precision touchpads somewhere in 2015, and suddenly Windows touchpads became as precise as those on Macs. Likewise with RGB peripherals. Even GPU driver applications have increasingly become less useful as the most important features—power control, adaptive sync, HDR, etc have moved into native Windows settings.

petesergeant 3mo ago
> One can't expect that every driver package submission from every vendor is thoroughly vetted every time, this is a matter of trust and respect. Apple seem to do a pretty decent job of just that
- delta_p_delta_x 3mo ago
  The situation is very different on Macs. Apple control almost the entire hardware stack of the machines that macOS runs on. They make it an absolute pain in the neck to run any application not blessed by attestation. This attestation server is also frequently offline. They've also made it very difficult to write things like filesystem drivers, having completely pulled that functionality from more recent versions of macOS. In fact, if I recall correctly one cannot ship a third-party kext on more recent Macs, especially ARM ones. As such, hackintoshing has basically vanished as a hobby. At least on Windows, the most you get is a scare screen saying 'this app is from an unidentified developer'. I know what I'd rather have.

account42 3mo ago

The headline isn't a lie, even if you can technically nitpick it. The manufacturer implemented choices to deliberately install the software when the monitors are connected. The mechanism is not important to why this is outrageous.

TeMPOraL 3mo ago
I disagree, the mechanism is the only important thing. Everything else is storytelling and superstition.