alt.hn

7/28/2026 at 2:46:19 PM

I'd not buy a LG monitor

 https://beko.famkos.net/2026/07/27/id-not-buy-a-lg-monitor/

by speckx

7/29/2026 at 6:46:45 AM

Hint for Microsoft:

- 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

by harrouet

7/29/2026 at 10:46:56 AM

This is the MVP comment.

When you have a carpenter visiting you don't announce they can go into your kids' rooms (for reasons unrelated to the job is) and what not -- the [default] contract is they're there to do a job and their privileges go only as far as the job requires, they normally also ask you first time where your toilet is, although we all agree they can use it. It's a contract, formally and less so, and things work when the contract is abided by. The carpenter also can't say they had the right to the cookie jar on your kitchen counter just because they were working there.

By not implementing such a contract with code, Microsoft has shown negligence. And they have had _decades_, so it's likely a "business decision".

by hackrmn

7/29/2026 at 4:22:52 PM

Given all the spyware MS has built into Windows itself, this is not negligence it’s what they want.

by zaptheimpaler

7/28/2026 at 3:52:48 PM

Whilst it's preaching to the choir, I would attribute 50% of the blame to Microsoft. Loading any old thing and running it is not very responsible.

by beardyw

7/28/2026 at 5:04:25 PM

I'd argue closer 75%. Vendor abuse of this is hardly restricted to monitors, even if this is one of the more egregious cases.

by miladyincontrol

7/29/2026 at 11:36:23 AM

Microsoft started this really. In Windows 95, they built a filing system so that applications went in specific folders in the Start menu. MS Office installed all its icons in the root of the Start menu, because self-importance. Can't expect everyone else to respect the conventions after that.

by shermozle

7/28/2026 at 5:52:09 PM

Microsoft doesn't police IHVs -> Geeks: "MS is negligent!"

Microsoft does police IHVs -> Geeks: "MS is an evil monopolist!"

by ThrowawayB7

7/28/2026 at 7:23:24 PM

Or they could bundle a basic driver or police the driver they're curating while allowing people to download and install drivers directly from the vendor website with no policing, no signature checks, etc.

Distributing malware is negligent or malicious, yes. Not stopping users from seeking out their own malware is neither. Nothing stops you from running malware on Linux. The curated repos are simply good enough that there's not much reason to go looking elsewhere.

by ndriscoll

7/29/2026 at 6:38:51 AM

You forgot the 3rd current option: Microsoft does police HIV, but does it poorly -> "MS is a negligent evil monopolist"

by eviks

7/29/2026 at 11:10:20 AM

Yeah nobody who's sane is calling them negligent for being able to run random .exes

by inigyou

7/29/2026 at 1:32:05 PM

No, policing viruses is McAfee's job. :-)

by BobBagwill

7/29/2026 at 3:36:52 AM

Well… they’re putting their signature on the stuff and blocking everything lacking it…

by BobbyTables2

7/29/2026 at 8:15:17 AM

There's also the option of "MS asks you if you want to run stuff your monitor wants to run". It's not that hard.

The fault here is definitely LG's, though.

by stavros

7/29/2026 at 2:03:52 PM 

  [x] Yes
  [ ] Remind me later

by willismichael

7/28/2026 at 7:09:48 PM

Well yeah, when you spend a significant segment of your corporate life being both negligent and an evil monopolist, people tend to assume the worst. Don't like it? Behave better.

by Analemma_

7/29/2026 at 2:20:43 AM

No, it doesn't work that way. You can't blame someone for acting badly no matter what they do - the person who does that is the one acting badly.

by bigstrat2003

7/29/2026 at 4:06:19 AM

There are more than the two bad choices for behavior here.

It's not "no matter what they do" it's really that everything they do is wrong and there really are much better alternatives than the choices they continue to make.

by tarxvf

7/29/2026 at 3:06:19 AM

It's called a reputation.

by fortyseven

7/28/2026 at 5:58:03 PM

Poor Microsoft, what have they possibly done to deserve such lack of faith??

by AtlasBarfed

7/28/2026 at 5:44:10 PM

It’s as if nothing was learned from AutoRun CDs and the like.

by mikestew

7/29/2026 at 1:19:44 AM

No, this is LG making a choice to abuse an OS feature in order to shove ads down people's throats and spy on them.

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.

by kelnos

7/29/2026 at 8:06:19 AM

>I have an LG TV that I've never allowed to connect to a network, and I'm definitely keeping it that way.

I'm starting to think that is what I need to do with my computers.

by tonyedgecombe

7/29/2026 at 5:45:32 AM

> No, this is LG making a choice to abuse an OS feature in order to shove ads down people's throats and spy on them.

Meh, give a company something they can feasibly abuse for money, and they'll probably do that. I'm not sure that this is practically feasible on Mac or Linux; Macs enable fairly constrained but powerful userspace drivers that generally need approval, and I've never seen a piece of hardware automatically download anything that can run in the background, but that could be an anecdotal experience. Maybe printers would be the exception.

The tradeoff is that even software like Zoom doesn't completely work by default

by brailsafe

7/28/2026 at 6:37:08 PM

50% is a bit much. People do expect their hardware to just work. That means installing drivers and the like. And the act here is so egregious that I can't imagine being an LG engineer and living with the shame of being so incredibly despicable.

I'm disappointed with Microsoft, I'm incensed at LG.

by OkayPhysicist

7/28/2026 at 7:18:58 PM

I don't know that Microsoft is without significant blame here. They provided a mechanism for LG to do this without the necessary checks. They could just as easily make part of the WHQL process and related agreements state pretty clearly that such behaviour is forbidden and will result in anything from financial penalties to driver decertification.

If anything, as shitty as LG's behaviour is, Microsoft gave them the tools to eke out a little more money at the expense of the consumer, and a company like LG is not likely to leave that money on the table out of the goodness of their hearts. As the scorpion told the frog - "It's my character".

by genocidicbunny

7/29/2026 at 11:20:10 AM

> People do expect their hardware to just work. That means installing drivers and the like.

A display, of all things, shouldn't require installing anything to make it "just work." It just needs speak standardized protocols over standardized cables. That should require no more than generic drivers shipped with the operating system.

by soraminazuki

7/28/2026 at 8:33:46 PM

What part of "software needed to control a peripheral" could POSSIBLY be defined as: "software that shows you ads, and/or uploads private data to vendor without even asking for consent"?

by RetroTechie

7/29/2026 at 2:20:15 PM

Be glad they are not mining for crypto on baked in chips with the power they draw freely.. and have some logic to circumvent power drawing measurements.

by 21asdffdsa12

7/29/2026 at 8:56:19 AM

Why do monitors need drivers to work?

by acchow

7/28/2026 at 11:07:35 PM

Easy fix: freeze their developer signing accounts like they did with VeraCrypt and WireGuard, demand that they remove spyware to regain access to sign their future updates.

by iAMkenough

7/29/2026 at 4:51:26 AM

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).

by phendrenad2

7/29/2026 at 1:07:34 PM

Surely Microsoft have the expertise and resources to make a platform of driver signing that separate addon software and basic driver needs? Why should a USB headset plugged in be allowed to auto install audio software, recording software, antivirus software and adware, and not even from the device itself but fetch it from Windows Update platform) without the users consent? Surely it would just install the needed audio driver to pass sound as signed by Microsoft, with an option for the rest?

The proposed solution to this huge issue in windows isn't to let average users fend for themselves, no one is arguing that.

by xquce

7/29/2026 at 1:15:20 PM

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?

Tinfoil hats, I know.

by kotaKat

7/28/2026 at 5:58:54 PM

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.

by dabbz

7/28/2026 at 7:44:39 PM

What about DELL? The Dell UltraSharp lineup seems to be pretty solid. I am planning to get one once my LG Monitor dies.

by rlam2x51

7/28/2026 at 8:08:10 PM

I really appreciate that the Dell monitors don't have the stupid proprietary charging bricks. And fairly decent features.

by TechPlasma

7/29/2026 at 11:12:58 AM

Are they really proprietary or just not what you want? Most of these bricks just output a fixed voltage in a barrel jack.

by inigyou

7/28/2026 at 10:36:58 PM

I thought monitors lost those over 15 years ago, but a few years ago I got a Samsung gaming monitor that happened to come with a brick. Ugh.

by theandrewbailey

7/28/2026 at 10:35:31 PM

I work at an e-waste recycling company. We get Dell monitors all the time. Their basic office monitors seem fine (~24" 1080p), but all our clients are too cheap to go for the more expensive models.

by theandrewbailey

7/29/2026 at 1:24:44 PM

That's because Dell monitors are extremely popular with businesses.

by IshKebab

7/28/2026 at 8:14:44 PM

Have to say, I've never been disappointed by a Dell monitor.

by vitally3643

7/29/2026 at 1:49:59 AM

Dell ultrawide is the way to go!

by isaachinman

7/28/2026 at 9:52:20 PM

Honestly I was more thinking about TVs than monitors but I often forget Dell makes good monitors.

by dabbz

7/29/2026 at 8:39:12 AM

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

by ChrisRR

7/29/2026 at 10:41:20 AM

It depends on the type of ad and way they're being delivered. Advertisers do in fact highly value events like the Superbowl, Tour de France, Olympics and FIFA World Cup. Instagram influencers and podcast bros still focus a lot of time and energy on shilling products and supplements in an "honest" way to their uncritical audiences.

Meanwhile, junk food, tobacco, alcohol and gambling corporations are always willing to fight tooth and nail to block attempts at advertising restriction and bans. Advertising in the long haul will always work, especially if it manages to stand out in noisy but bland environments.

As for the ones that we deem to be the most useless ads, perhaps they still serve an Overton Window purpose in maintaining a level of chaos and confusion along with keeping a marketing manager occupied with busywork (or ad fraud) until they have a real campaign to impress their boss with.

The fact that I still semi-regularly encounter "tech literate" people who refuse or are slow to learn to use uBlock Origin (or similar) says a lot about how accepting many people actually are when it comes to noise.

by coatmatter

7/28/2026 at 6:07:59 PM

What about BenQ?

by zuhsetaqi

7/29/2026 at 4:32:15 AM

BenQ is great. Been using a DesignVue for years. It is boring and just works. Doesn’t require any specialized drivers either.

by microflash

7/28/2026 at 7:15:20 PM

I am very happy with my BenQ monitors, they are great value and high quality.

by dafelst

7/28/2026 at 4:53:03 PM

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.

by Graziano_M

7/29/2026 at 6:22:10 AM

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.

by noir_lord

7/28/2026 at 5:04:46 PM

That sucks. I've used an LG UltraFine 5K with my Mac Studio for years and still consider it one of my favorite tech purchases ever, so I feel lucky I've never needed their support services.

by CharlesW

7/29/2026 at 7:00:26 PM

Yep. Their hardware can be good. Their software sucks. Their customer service is even worse.

by Graziano_M

7/28/2026 at 6:02:59 PM

> I decided I would never buy an LG monitor after mine broke ...

Sheesh it's bad luck.

I've got an ultra-wide 38" LG monitor since 2017. Nearly 10 years and that thing is used daily and still running strong.

by TacticalCoder

7/29/2026 at 11:13:32 AM

10 years is a long time to enshittify.

by inigyou

7/28/2026 at 8:03:16 PM

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.

by aeternum

7/29/2026 at 8:41:33 AM

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

by ChrisRR

7/28/2026 at 8:15:07 PM

Just stay on Windows 10 and it will be disabled for you!

by pzxc

7/28/2026 at 11:43:57 PM

You can always https://0patch.com!

by conception

7/29/2026 at 4:08:50 AM

Oh wow. Are they just repackaging official Windows patches or are they patching vulnerabilities themselves?

by gymbeaux

7/28/2026 at 8:23:23 PM

I've disabled Windows updates since 2017. Occasionally, I'll hit a feature I have to update for, like Windows Mixed Reality, and then pull that specific feature update. I think back in 2021 I had to update to the 2019 version of Windows 10 for that. I used uupdump to download what I needed and install it offline.

All the fiascos lately about Microsoft completely bricking and destroying systems with terrible updates just reinforce my original decision.

Note that I'm not at all hostile to updates in general. I'll update my Mac as soon as one's available, even to unstable betas, because it automatically reopens my apps and doesn't lose a bunch of state like Windows does. I'll also update my iPhone and iPad. It's really just Microsoft that I don't trust and never have.

When I got a new PC desktop, I decided to give Windows 11 a chance, and it's not bad. I hated for a while that the UI feels like just a ripoff of ChromeOS, but eventually I got used to it. I only update the minimum amount necessary when anti-cheats decide my old files are no longer trusted (looking at you, ARC Raiders).

by LoganDark

7/29/2026 at 3:06:38 PM

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.

by forgotmypw17

7/29/2026 at 2:49:06 AM

Is there any hdmi dongle that can be used to mitigate this?

by skinfaxi

7/29/2026 at 4:11:09 AM

Linux mitigates this ;)

by HDBaseT

7/29/2026 at 3:10:33 AM

Would it be as simple as spoofing the EDID manufacturer/product to something generic? I naively assume DCC/CI would all still work?

by nomel

7/29/2026 at 3:34:20 AM

I’d certainly expect so.

There are cheap dongles that spoof the EDID for a fixed 4K or HD monitor with fixed settings. Not sure what they do about DCC/CI, might just disconnect it.

by BobbyTables2

7/29/2026 at 9:58:12 AM

I'm in the same boat. Given many of the other brands do this as well, what options do we have for monitors and TVs?

In fact, what I really want is just a display. They can keep their “smart” stuff; I'm not interested.

by dethos

7/28/2026 at 6:20:46 PM

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?

by NikxDa

7/28/2026 at 7:04:41 PM

I have had good success with my dell montiors over the years. Only problem is they are not created equal, they sell to every level, entry/cheap office/gamers/high end docks/color calibrated/etc. I have stuck to the ultrasharps (and paid for it) but have been happy. Check out https://www.rtings.com/

by mey

7/28/2026 at 6:34:19 PM

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?".

Ghastly.

by sparkyvision

7/28/2026 at 5:47:08 PM

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.

by tracker1

7/28/2026 at 8:59:28 PM

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.

by jachris

7/28/2026 at 9:43:59 PM

LG monitor works perfectly fine on my mac studio. Feels like Microsoft should be doing business differently.

by nickthegreek

7/28/2026 at 7:00:29 PM

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.

by nick125

7/28/2026 at 6:31:57 PM

Why analog monitors is better. Harder to install spyware. So called by the industry "Smart devices" are dumb for privacy reasons.

by acd

7/28/2026 at 6:07:29 PM

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.

by bdcravens

7/28/2026 at 6:37:54 PM

This is at the driver level, just like when you plugin new webcam, keyboard, gpu, etc. Windows will automatically install a default driver for that device. Now, instead of a driver, Windows will happily install some random craps that the hardware asks it to without needing any input from the users. Totally BS from Microsoft.

by anvuong

7/29/2026 at 10:14:18 AM

> In what timeline is this acceptable behaviour by a fucking monitor to tell it’s manufacturer what [naughty] video you’re currently watching?

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

by Good4boothee

7/28/2026 at 8:42:29 PM

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.

by ebbi

7/28/2026 at 8:44:11 PM

how did you convert them? Was it a software or hardware thing?

by mig39

7/28/2026 at 8:47:14 PM

I think there's a software route you can go, but I went the hardware route. Essentially requires opening up the iMac, gutting out all the internals, and replacing it with a display driver board (from AliExpress, eBay, etc).

The display driver board has various inputs like HDMI, Thunderbolt, USB-C etc so it ends up acting like any other external monitor. It has a remote you control the brightness/contrast etc settings.

I've got my Mac and PS5 hooked up to it. Love it!

by ebbi

7/29/2026 at 6:10:43 AM

Aah yes Temufication.

by LASR

7/28/2026 at 3:20:35 PM

"Smart" = "Ads"

by meangenehackman

7/29/2026 at 11:09:12 AM

Smart = surveillant

Remember "smart" has a double meaning. It also refers to pain as in "smarting".

by nephihaha

7/29/2026 at 5:51:10 AM

This comes down to shitty vendors.

LG monitors are not behaving idiotically on Linux. Just saying.

by worthless-trash

7/28/2026 at 9:02:02 PM

[flagged]

by opengrass

7/28/2026 at 3:24:01 PM

maybe elaborate a little here next time

by KinetiNode

7/28/2026 at 3:50:20 PM

The intention is that you read the article.

by beardyw

7/29/2026 at 3:03:26 PM

Sorry im kinda new to HN , i clicked the comment / discussions directly i didnt know that there was a link

by KinetiNode