LG monitors were quietly installing an app on Windows that advertised McAfee

Windows users have discovered that pricey LG monitors are capable of installing extra software on a computer without asking. The culprit is an app called LG Monitor App Installer, which is pulled in through Windows Update along with the monitor's drivers and then proceeds to display pop-up ads — most often for a 30-day free trial of McAfee antivirus, as well as for LG's own products.

Complaints began piling up on Reddit, after which the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus took up the topic. Its editor-in-chief, Steve Burke, said the outlet had bought a $1,200 LG UltraGear gaming monitor (two days later the price dropped to $600) and reproduced the annoying behavior several times on different Windows 11 systems. According to him, the window appeared in the bottom-right corner “on every boot,” mostly advertising McAfee and occasionally the LG Switch, Calibration Studio, Dual Controller, and LG Channels services.

Microsoft's response

After the video went out, Microsoft stepped in. Pavan Davuluri, executive vice president for Windows and Devices, said the company had reached out to LG, which agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up. He thanked the partner for moving toward a “better experience for our shared customers.”

The trouble is that the disappearance of the McAfee banner doesn't solve the main problem: a peripheral is still installing advertising software on someone else's computer on its own. According to Windows Latest, the app was recently updated, and McAfee showed up in the changelog as an “additional app” — probably why the ads started appearing more frequently.

What's more troubling than the ads

Users found LG Monitor App Installer and its banners without a single permission prompt. And, Burke notes, once installed the app formally gains the right to use “all system resources,” as well as to collect geolocation, device data, network activity, contacts, credentials, and transaction information. It's also alarming that the practice has been going on for years: Burke spotted the ads even on monitors bought three years ago.

Windows itself is partly to blame. Microsoft allows device companion apps to install automatically on connection unless the user has opted out of the “recommended settings.” The developer documentation openly states that there is no installation notification, and that some people find this “confusing and annoying.”

Other manufacturers are guilty of the same — Razer, Logitech, Asus, Gigabyte. But a monitor, unlike those, usually doesn't need a branded app at all, and it can cost more than a thousand dollars, which makes the forced installation especially questionable. Among the models spotted doing this are, among others, the 34GX900A-B, 45GX950-B, 32GS95UE-B, and 27GP83B-B. LG had not responded to Ars Technica's questions about the app's purpose and data protection by the time of publication.

Source: Ars Technica