The big picture: McAfee was once a trusted name in antivirus software during the MS-DOS era. Many computer systems came bundled with a copy of the company’s VirusScan freeware tool to ward off Trojan horses and other virus threats. Today, McAfee is a name that is largely only trusted in the enterprise and B2B markets. End users would much prefer to avoid McAfee products at this point, which is why they tend to get upset when anyone tries to push the McAfee brand through bundled advertising pop-ups.
The controversial advertising partnership between LG and McAfee has now come to an end after Microsoft got involved in the matter.
Pavan Davuluri, executive vice president of Windows and Devices, recently confirmed that Redmond reached out to LG, the company that started it all. LG has “agreed” to remove the McAfee pop-up from its Windows Store app, Davuluri said, which likely means that Microsoft compelled the South Korean manufacturer to stop pushing McAfee-related advertising to customers who purchased a new gaming monitor.
The controversy began earlier this month when users discovered that the “LG Monitor App Installer” app was displaying McAfee promotions. Windows installed the app after affected users connected their brand-new LG monitors, with no easy way to uninstall the software without resorting to third-party applications or disabling the Microsoft Store itself.
According to Davuluri’s post, Microsoft “connected” with LG before the latter agreed to remove the McAfee advertisement from the LG Monitor App Installer app. Both companies share a common goal of improving the Windows ecosystem and providing users with the best possible software experience.
Based on user complaints, the list of LG monitors reportedly found to automatically push the LG Monitor App Installer onto users’ PCs includes the following models: 34GX900A-B, 45GX950-B.AEU, 32GS95UE-B, 39GX950B, 27GP83B-B, 27GN800, 32GS95UE-B, and 27GN850-B.
Apps developed through Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform can be designed to install automatically when a user connects a particular device to a Windows machine. Put simply, Microsoft allowed this practice for UWP app developers, and the LG monitor software was simply working as designed. The official UWP documentation even states that automatic installation is often a source of confusion because users do not receive any notification about the installation activity. Other companies known to take advantage of this auto-install feature include Razer, Logitech, Asus, and Gigabyte.
