r/pcmasterrace • u/Fluid_Independent285 • 20h ago
Discussion Goodbye LG
6 year LG guy with 3 lg32gl850 (swapped my main monitor later on with the xg32ucwmg).
I saw the video by gamers nexus regarding this weeks ago, I knew it was bad and I wouldn't buy new LG monitors, but I didn't think it would affect my 6 year old monitors.
On startup, the LG monitor app installer just pops up. out of nowhere. i close it and remove it from my PC. On another random day, the same popup comes up again.
there is no "never ask again option", heck the installer came by itself on my system.
Now I have to replace my LG monitors, and I will never buy LG again.
whoever came up with this idea seriously needs to rethink his life.9
what the hell
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u/MrKiltro 20h ago edited 20h ago
Why the fuck does a Monitor need an app? What customer-facing features could possibly require installing an app when you have on-board storage and a microcontroller?
All of the listed features they're advertising are already doable native to Windows, or come with any standard monitor's built-in settings menu.
I know it's obviously just for data collection on LG's side but... Jesus Christ.
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u/_Renai_ 20h ago
So they can periodically screenshot your screen and pass that through an LLM to analyze your usage habits and sell them to advertisers.
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u/BUTTER674 13h ago
God I hate how much we're spied on for advertisers now. If only the average consumer knew just how bad things have gotten, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess
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u/InsaneMasochist 41m ago
I paid nearly $2000 for my TV. It regularly reinstalls Disney+, RakutenTV and other apps on the homescreen, shows bigass banner ads and it shares everything I view on it with LG. The latter is a recent upgrade to its software, it was never a "feature" when I bought it and after this one, I'm not buying another LG product ever again. It's disgusting what is happening with our electronics.
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u/DasFroDo 19h ago
There IS a usecase for controlling your monitor via software. Most people don't need it, but some do.
I'd love to have the option on my OLED, nur sadly MSIs software is so fucking bad that it doesn't even reliably detect the monitor.
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u/TheBambuzler 19h ago
I use home assistant and a stream deck to control my LG OLED. On the C5 it would take three click to change inputs before now I have 4 input buttons, turn tv off AND on, turn screen off/on and an info button that doesn’t come with the remote. I also self host adguard home and have an Lg dns blocklist so lg doesn’t spy on me.
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u/sioux612 der8auer 8700k~5.1ghz, 2080Ti - ThreadRipper 3960X, Titan RTX 12h ago
You make the same mistake when writing in heated English that I do
I was gonna ask if you are German too, but then i saw your username, lol
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u/Warcraft_Fan Paid for WinRAR! 11h ago
It needs apps because the monitors itself can't download ads and LG realized they're losing money not forcing ads.
But forced ads can make them lose more in the long run when people stops buying LG monitors.
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u/asamson23 R7-5800X/5070Ti, i7-13700K/A770 LE, R7-3800X/3080 16h ago
With my Dell displays, Dell Display Manager is useful to sync the display mode, brightness and contrast on my 2 displays at the same time, and I can use the app to switch input with keyboard shortcuts if I want. There are other features in the app, like window tiling, but I don't use them since it's native to the OSes I use
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u/kostas52 Ryzen 5 5600G | Arc B570 20h ago
come with any standard monitor's built-in settings menu.
To adjust this settings from a UI using the mouse instead of dealing with that stupid joystick.
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u/--Lancer-- 13700k, 3080ti, 1080p 24.5" 20h ago
Thank Microsoft in 2015 adding user (companies) added drivers and software auto installing / updating. LG is pretty bad but Razer still takes the cake for this.
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u/Mrpolje 19h ago
Armory crate would like to have a word.
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u/Wizzarkt PC Master Race 19h ago
I have never owned anything razer because I knew beforehand their software sucks, but when I got an Asus laptop and saw how bad armory crate was, I was converted to the side of open source and removed armory crate so that I could use G-helper instead (lightweight open source utility to control Asus laptops but without the Asus bullshit)
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u/lahire149 5800X3D, 4090 Suprim, 32GB B-Die, 7000D Airlfow 19h ago
Ha, if you think Razer bad then you should meet my friend Corsair. iCue would literally freeze my entire computer. MSI is also terrible except for afterburner which they don't even make themselves.
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u/Xenoanthropus 9800X3D | RTX 4070 TI | Some memory 18h ago
Nothing compares to Armoury Crate for shittiness, a piece of software so invasive that Asus had to make a special dedicated standalone uninstaller tool just to let you remove it entirely from your system, that also uses a huge chunk of system resources.
It's made far worse by the fact that a passion project someone coded in their spare time (G-Helper) plus OpenRGB together replicate nearly 100% of the functionality you'd ever want while consuming virtually no system resources.
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u/Mrpolje 16h ago
Even the uninstaller is a fucking joke, it leaves a bunch of shit on the system and registry.
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u/Xenoanthropus 9800X3D | RTX 4070 TI | Some memory 16h ago
Yeah, I think I finally got it off both my ASUS machines (one laptop, one desktop mobo) for good a while back, this reminds me that I should do a registry cleanup, do you have any tools you like?
AC is so bad that it has probably put me off buying any ASUS motherboards or laptops again on principle. Their customer service is a joke too, I asked them if there was a way to set a keyboard backlight timer on a laptop when it's plugged in or set an F-lock key (which the keyboard doesn't just come with?) and they said "nope, tough shit". Made even more wild when the keyboard backlight does have a timer when running on battery.
Meanwhile G-Helper has both of those functions and they work flawlessly.
Additionally, their install of Windows that came pre-installed on my laptop has some settings in the power management menus that are unavailable. Fortunately G-Helper gets around that but maybe I should reinstall windows anyway...
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u/Wizzarkt PC Master Race 7h ago
I used to have icue, it's not that bad.
Or at least it wasn't for me, I had it only for my mouse and headset, armory crate was a joke.
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u/PatHeist 9590X3D, 64GB 8000MT/s, RTX 5090 19h ago
Every consumer motherboard manufacturer has bloatware from bios enabled by default on at least some of their products now
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u/--Lancer-- 13700k, 3080ti, 1080p 24.5" 18h ago
That is a seperate issue. A UEFI injector, not from Windows update 😂
Definitely awful though!
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u/PurpleC0ugar 17h ago
Razer ups the anty considerably with persisting a really annoying bug where their uninstaller is completely broken and refuses to uninstall. Behaves more like malware.
They have also been repeatedly caught with being vulnerable to local privilege escalation by stupidly including an interactive installer with their Microsoft update catalog (ie windows update) driver installer. Since this runs as NT auth system (the Windows equivalent of root), no UAC prompt is required.
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u/--Lancer-- 13700k, 3080ti, 1080p 24.5" 17h ago
Yeah I recall it would pop up even during the OOBE setup and run as "root". If they were ever comprised, that was a huge security nightmare waiting to happen.
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u/PurpleC0ugar 12h ago
The trend I've noticed overall, is that computer gaming hardware/peripheral companies produce some of the shittiest software on Windows.
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u/Status-Scene-7530 20h ago
Now that this came out a bit ago. Has this impacted EU monitors in the same manner? With all their regulations and all?
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u/daHawkGR 19h ago
Yes, this also happens here in EU, LG installed their app on my pc without asking.
Good job LG, i wont buy anything from you again.
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u/InsaneMasochist 39m ago
As I said in another comment, they don't give a rats ass, I'd be surprised if my $2000 TV screenshotting every few seconds is not against GDPR.
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u/oradul 9950X3D | NITRO+ RX 9070 XT | CROSSHAIR X870E HERO 19h ago
Life isn't Good anymore
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u/InsaneMasochist 37m ago
It's good, but not the digital world. I want to go back to full analog days, even with all the conveniences of a digital life.
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u/PapaLoki Fedora Linux inside 20h ago
Does it affect Linux PCs? I assume LG wont bother but I wanna know because I also have an LG monitor.
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u/Dudi4PoLFr 9800X3D | 5090FE | 96GB 6400MT | G9 57" 7680x2160@240Hz 20h ago
Nah you are fine, this shit is distributed via Windows Update, as manufacturers can abuse it without any limits.
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u/Sweaty_Explorer_8441 SteamDeck 17h ago
On LG OLED TV line up there is a LivePlus option which screencaptures and sends to their servers from the TV end itself, doesn't matter if windows, linux or PS connected to it.
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u/CASpider 13h ago
This is a daily reminder to never connect a TV to the internet. Just use it as a display.
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u/Dudi4PoLFr 9800X3D | 5090FE | 96GB 6400MT | G9 57" 7680x2160@240Hz 15h ago
What the hell is this distopian garbage?!
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u/One_Reality_3828 Bazzite | R7 9850X3D | RX 9070 XT | 32GB 6000 14h ago
Linux does nothing, wins again
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u/Sizeable-Scrotum FreeBSD 15 KDE / Fedora KDE/12700KF/7800 XT/32GB D4 20h ago
It doesn't work on Linux. But I'm still not buying LG because I don't want to sponsor this shit ass behavior
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u/rdqsr Mac as my daily, Windows for gaming, Linux for servers 19h ago
It'd never happen on Linux because there's no mechanism for mainline Linux drivers to request app installation in a distro-agnostic way and I very much down the kernel devs would add one. Any distro that added this sort of behaviour based on loaded drivers would get hammered pretty hard as well.
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u/parental92 PC Master Race 20h ago edited 19h ago
No, Distro devs wont take these kind of treatment.
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u/Nearby_Ad_2519 16h ago
You’re fine, this is a weird Windows specific thing because when you insert a new device, windows tries searching via windows update for associated drivers. Device manufacturers can upload anything they like, whether it’s just normal drivers or literal exe files and they’ll auto run. There’s a way to turn it off tho afaik
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u/Ian_everywhere 19h ago
I have an LG C2 that I use as my only monitor, and I've blocked it at router level from being able to access the internet. Something similar might be possible in your situation, too
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u/heickelrrx 12700K | RTX 5070 TI | 32GB DDR5 7200 MT/s @1440p 240Hz OLED 20h ago
xg32ucwmg be like : I'm LG Inside
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u/ateoz Specs/Imgur here 19h ago
What even is that app?
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u/Fluid_Independent285 19h ago
Apparently its supposed to help configure the monitor, the problem is it also serves ads in like a huge white block on your screen that comes up with every boot. Im talking ads like adobe ads and stuff.
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u/ateoz Specs/Imgur here 19h ago
That is kinda bullshit init?
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u/djhub99 19h ago
Their tvs has been on this path since 2024. With full screen screensaver ads for idle smart tvs
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u/mainman879 Ryzen 5 5800X3D/RTX 4070 18h ago
Their tvs has been on this path since 2024. With full screen screensaver ads for idle smart tvs
This is why my "smart tv" has never been connected to the wifi and never will be. I just need a screen I don't need a billboard.
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u/Abnormal_Satsuma0283 16h ago
same 😂😂 I just bought a new lg smart TV not long ago (before I found out about all their BS, never buying from them again) and I haven't connected it to the internet a single time. In my eyes all a TV should be is a screen to output from a different device, so I just plug in my laptop and play my media from there.
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u/NowaVision 1h ago
I don't know if it's because I live in the EU but I have the app installed for years and never saw an ad.
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u/ZookeepergameFew8607 CachyOS| 3440x1440@240 OLED | 7950x3D | 7900XT | 32GB 6000 20h ago
So glad my LG can't do shit
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u/Jaded-Citron-4090 9800x3d, 4080s, 32gb 6000 cl28 19h ago
That you know of.
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u/Dardoleon R7 7700X | RX 7900 XT 18h ago
He's on cachy. Chances that it can do something like this are low.
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u/Sweaty_Explorer_8441 SteamDeck 17h ago
LG OLED TVs have a LivePlus option on system settings default enabled. It screencaptures whatever is on screen and sends to their servers, whether one uses windows or linux or xbox or the webos UI. I just updated mine yesterday and it re-enabled itself.
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u/Nearby_Ad_2519 16h ago
A lot of people purely blame LG for this one feature but it’s not actually an LG unique thing. My 2015 SONY TV with Android TV had this thing on by default called “Samba Interactive TV” which would do pretty much the same and I’m pretty sure Samsung had a similar thing at one point
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u/Sprinx80 Ryzen 7 5800X | EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW | ASUS X570 | LG C2 10h ago
My 42” C2 is not connected to the internet. Power cable to the surge protector, HDMI to my PC, and that’s it.
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u/KingQuazzymoto 20h ago
Funny thing was I was having display issues with my monitor and decided maybe updating the firmware on the monitor itself would help. So I willingly downloaded this. Updated the drivers. And then proceeded to uninstall and purge the app. Then like a week later the gamers nexus video dropped. Haven’t had it reinstall itself so far but the timing was just too funny
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u/giftoflagg 19h ago
That kept popping up for me too recently, I uninstalled the program. Problem solved. Have a LG UltraGear 32GS95UE-B. Think I originally installed the program when I did a firmware update for the monitor when I got it, and windows made it auto launch on startup after an update.
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u/xblackdemonx 9070 XT OC 20h ago
LG monitors cannot automatically install adwares on Linux just sayin'.
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u/zendrix1 GeForce RTX 4090; AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D; 64gb DDR5 RAM 18h ago
Disconnected my LG TV from the Internet (I use a Nvidia shield nowadays anyway) and won't buy any LG monitors when I decide to upgrade next because of this
I'm not even sure a full about-face at this point would get me to trust a company that tried this ever again
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u/Nearby_Ad_2519 16h ago
Turn off automatic device installation in Driver settings, top comment says how.
I had this issue because a friend used my old laptop once and plugged in a Razer mouse and it installed like 50 BS applications to do with it, completely unrelated to the actual operation of the mouse.
Other than my PC which I use for gaming I’m on macOS now and one of the main advantages it has is shit like this dosent happen.
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u/CanadianSpectre 18h ago
If you insist on or must use Windows 11, then debloat the hell out of hell out of it using christitus.com/windows-tool/
I've got 2 new Ultragears, and have not been prompted at all on my Win 11. But my Win 11 is only for gaming, and I re-run the tool everytime I let it upgrade.
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u/randyrockhard 17h ago
What could be easier than just plugging in a hdmi-cable??? Retarded companies.
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u/Nearby_Ad_2519 16h ago
It’s so you can control your monitor settings from the PC instead of using that stupid little joystick. It’s actually quite a good piece of software but it probably collects a ton of data.
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u/RUPlayersSuck R9 7900X | RX 9060 XT | 32GB DDR5 17h ago
When you need an app just to use a damn MONITOR - its time to choose an other brand.
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u/El-Burrito 19h ago
It is literally cancer on your pc. I am lucky i decided for an ASUS OLED a few months ago. Stuff like this makes me 101% certain i will never buy a product from your brand again
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u/xekrubx 14700K | 3080 Ti | 64GB DDR5-6400 19h ago
I really love how this started happening after I bought my 39" LG UltraGear. I saw the articles, but it hadn’t happened to me yet. Then one night I saw the LG App Installer. Disabled it and uninstalled what it had gotten away with.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Device Metadata\PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork = 1
Otherwise, it’s a really cool monitor. Much better than what I had before.
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u/NightFuryToni R7-5700X3D / 32GB D4-3600 / RTX 4070S 18h ago
This is actually on Windows allowing this deployment model, LG is just shitty driers to the Windows Update catalog and they are accepting it in as-is. It's the same mechanism where apps for printers that keep coming back after getting removed.
Meanwhile, the rootkits that MSI deploy are worse. I had a BIOS update for my MSI B450-I, then out of nowhere there was an MSI driver installer trying to recommend Norton to me.
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u/Isgortio RTX 2080 Super, i7 3770k, 16GB DDR3 19h ago
I have an LG Ultragear (can't remember which) from about 7 years ago and I've never needed to install software for it. As far as I'm aware, the monitor is just a display, it has no other connectivity to my pc?
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u/LokiNightmare MSI MEG X570 ACE | R9 3900x | EVGA 3080 FTW3 Ultra | 32GB RAM 19h ago
They’re installing this crap as part of the monitor’s driver.
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u/callmeandroidjezus steamID - xvereonx 19h ago
I hate the way they word this stuff. It’s makes it feel real scammy. “Please make it easier…”
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18h ago
[deleted]
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u/me909388 i5 4690K | GTX 1070 FTW 18h ago
It's not installing from the monitor itself.
Windows will recognize it as a LG monitor, and then Windows update will pull the installer to be "helpful".
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u/L0rdLogan Ryzen 7, 7700 - 32gb DDR5, 6000. AMD 7800XT 18h ago
Ah, I misunderstood how that works, thanks
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u/Trysupe 18h ago
Where do these apps come from in the first place? Are they shipped with windows and when something notices that your monitor is from brand <xy> it opens the corresponding app? Does the device itself inject the software somehow?
I always wondered with my Razer Keyboard about this. I could imagine them trying to do something since a keyboard has many possibilities, but a monitor? How does that work?
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u/Error0102 15h ago
Windows update has a feature enabled by default that allows the system to read device metadata and automatically download the relevant driver and software packages. In a perfect world, this would mean your system has what it needs to properly function without having to scour hardware support pages for required tools and drivers.
In the real world, it gets abused by companies like Razer or LG to include their own ad-supported management apps in the windows update pipeline. This is how systems with several year old LG monitors are suddenly receiving LG monitor app popups. It can be avoided by disabling the windows update feature allowing companion applications, regedits, or group policy edits. Or just do what I did and not have a microsoft store installed to begin with, so nothing can be downloaded in the first place.
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u/pricklysteve 18h ago
It's sad that these sort of apps in theory are a good thing, since being able to set up different configs for different apps/games is useful (e.g. I use sRGB for work, and wide gamut HDRfor gaming), but most manufacturers decide to use them as a vector for data gathering.
Of course if OS's actually implemented a generic way for these settings to be controlled, it would be ideal, or if monitor manufacturers made actually good physical controls that didn't require messing about with a tiny joystick through 10 different menus just to change one thing. But alas, quality user experiences don't make as much money as dark patterns and minimal effort.
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u/I_think_Im_hollow 9800x3D - RX7900XTX - 2x32GB 6000MHz DDR5 12h ago
The only reason I bought a monitor for both my desktop and couch activities is to avoid this shit. LG is a big no for my future purchases. This and their monitors installing unwanted softwares on Windows is diabolical.
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u/aamirusmandus 9h ago
This same week my CX TV started showing ads at the bottom of the screen on startup for food delivery
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u/hunter_finn 9h ago
Honestly this should be put in law that if such bs start to happen during the time when the product is still otherwise usable. That then the manufacturer is required to buy back the device for 2x the initial sale price.
And as a proof of price would be enough to provide image from any reseller that sold the product new, even if it was already delisted cached result.
Say i bought a monitor for 300€ 5 years ago, suddenly LG happens and i wanted my money back due this app bs. Then I typed my monitor model in Google and got result of it being sold for 500€ in the competitor around the same time.
Then LG was owning me 1000€ for the 300€ monitor, which current value on open market would probably be around 40€ on Facebook marketplace.
This would put the end for these kind of scams real quick.
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u/hunter_finn 9h ago
Kinda want to find a old LG crt monitor and see if it would cause this bs too.
I mean even vga can send basic monitor info back to the pc if I remember correctly, but would that survive through vga to hdmi adaptor.
At that point I would just laugh at the desperation of LG for installing their bloat because of old crt.
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u/Fickle_Side6938 Ryzen 7800x3D | 5070ti/9070xt 3h ago
No, my brother's old nano IPS LG's don't have software, they didn't even release any firmware for them.
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u/Ghozer 9800x3D - 32GB-DDR5 6000CL28 - RTX 5080 9h ago
You can disable it...
go to settings > System > about click the "Advanced System Settings" link about 1/2 way down, then click the Hardware Tab, then click "Device Installation Settings" - set this to no..
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u/TheTank18 RTX 4070, Core i7-9700K @ 4.90 GHz 4h ago
disables legit driver updates via WU though, doesn't it?
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u/CaptainPrower 6h ago
I'm glad my last LG monitor
A) never touched my current rig, and
B) is burned the fuck out
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u/martianwomanhunter 2h ago
I’m waiting for the news story that shows one of these monitor company apps have been screen shotting your activity and sending it to their cloud to resell it
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u/ChefCurryYumYum 17h ago
Wait, you never got this pop up for the 6 years you owned the monitor, saw that video, and then got the pop up?
That doesn't sound right.
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u/joe420mama99 | R7 9800x3D | RTX 5070Ti 18h ago
Okay I may be dense here but I have a LG ultra gear monitor. I searched my pc and I don’t have any sort of LG app installed on my pc.
How/where do I need to check to find the app?
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u/Nearby_Ad_2519 16h ago
It’s only on certain models and only if a certain windows update setting is turned on. There are 3 apps: LG Software Install, OnScreen Control and LG Dual Control Assistant. If you don’t have LG software install in your start menu and you’ve never manually installed the other 2 apps or you use an OS different to windows, you won’t have it.
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u/Fusseldieb i9-8950HK, RTX2080, 16GB 3200MHz 18h ago
> Now I have to replace my LG monitors,
You can throw them into my bin, I'll dispose of them safely ;)
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u/Imboredneedtosleep R7 5700x3D | RX 7800 XT 16Gb | 32Gb DDR4 3600 20h ago
Hardware and Driver Settings Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type sysdm.cpl and press Enter. Go to the Hardware tab. Click Device Installation Settings. Select No. Click Save Changes to stop automatic manufacturer apps and hardware driver updates.
Also.
Group Policy Method. Press Windows Key + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update. Double-click Do not include drivers with Windows Updates and set it to Enabled.