Microsoft responds to LG monitors installing McAfee ads on Windows - Ars Technica

LG is reportedly removing a McAfee pop-up ad from its LG Monitor App Installer, an app that some LG monitors covertly install on connected Windows PCs.
The app installs itself through Windows Update alongside monitor driver updates, then pushes ads for a 30-day McAfee free trial and other software via a pop-up.
The behavior drew attention through complaints on Reddit and a video from YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, whose editor-in-chief Steve Burke replicated the issue "several times" across multiple Windows 11 systems.
Gamers Nexus paid $1,200 for an LG UltraGear 3GX900A-B gaming monitor (which dropped to $600 two days later) for testing and reported a pop-up appearing on the screen's lower-right corner "on every single boot," most often a McAfee ad, with occasional ads for LG Switch, LG Calibration Studio, LG Dual Controller, and LG Channels.
Microsoft's Pavan Davuluri, EVP of Windows and devices, said this week that LG agreed to disable the McAfee pop-up, describing it as an immediate next step toward a better experience for shared customers.
According to Windows Latest, the app has been installing itself for months and a recent update added McAfee to its changelog, likely prompting the surge in complaints; however, removing the McAfee ad does not resolve the broader concern of a peripheral installing ad-pushing software onto users' computers.