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Most of us are already aware of the euphoric feeling associated with getting McAfee shoved into your face. Usually, though, it's limited to laptops and prebuilt PCs that come with bloatware, freemium software, or just outright premium software that you somehow acquired for free. It would sensibly drive a person insane if a new monitor that has no other job than displaying your GPU's output starts participating in these activities.
In this case, u/t40r just bought this monitor and plugged it into their computer for the first time. That's when they noticed a small pop-up in the corner right away. It was from the "LG Monitor App Installer," and the first thing it showed the OP was an ad for McAfee. That's right — it was something entirely unrelated to the monitor. But how did this app show up on u/t40r's PC when they didn't even set anything up yet?
The answer is apparently the great evil known as the Microsoft Store. Checking the startup apps in Task Manager confirmed that it added the LG Monitor App Installer to the PC automatically. It's similar to how motherboard software magically enters itself into your system when you reinstall Windows. That one makes a bit more sense, though, since it's supposed to help control or manage your computer.
Sure, the LG Monitor app could serve the same purpose for the monitor, but it wasted its precious first impressions on a McAfee ad instead of showing something useful to the customer. Persuasion be damned. Anyhow, we were able to confirm that this was not an isolated incident either, as another Redditor posted about the same issue just a week ago, along with the steps for the removal process via local group policy.
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Scouring through the comments also reveals other instances where users reported Alienware and Samsung engaging in similar ghost installs. It seems like a standard Microsoft policy of auto-downloading related monitor software, but it's then up to the manufacturer what they actually show in said app. Regardless, these apps don't seem to respect your preferences and just show up uninvited, even if you're already running a debloated version of Windows.
With recent discussions on just how granular Microsoft's telemetry can be , this openness starts to feel like an oversight just waiting to be exploited. Even if Microsoft thinks it's "helpful" to install utilities without consent, it should at least try to make sure those tools aren't throwing up ads. LG makes some of the best monitors on the market; otherwise, it's a shame that deeper software integration can sometimes undermine great hardware.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/companies-are-now-using-automatic-windows-installers-to-display-adware-through-the-microsoft-store-when-you-install-new-hardware-customer-immediately-gets-mcafee-ads-on-their-pc-after-connecting-new-lg-monitor-heres-how-to-block-the-new-ads#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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