Bought an LG monitor? You got McAfee pop-up ads
LG monitor owners are reporting that their screens are automatically installing annoying McAfee pop-up ads, a practice that has sparked significant backlash and prompted a partial intervention from Microsoft.
Photo: LG
With all due respect to the PC Master Race and Microsoft, the experience of Windows users even in 2026 remains controversial. Users who spend their hard-earned money on operating system licenses and high-end laptops often find themselves dealing with an influx of bloatware, advertisements, and pop-ups they never requested. However, LG has taken this a step further: users who purchased their monitors have discovered that the devices themselves are installing annoying advertisements.
Who approved this?
Although this issue has existed for several years, it made headlines in recent weeks following a video published by the Gamers Nexus channel (Steve Burke) on YouTube. In the video, he warns against purchasing LG monitors, claiming that their terms of use allow the company to track users and, among other things, may even record and transmit the content being viewed.
This is not the first time such claims have surfaced. At the end of 2025, the Attorney General of Texas announced lawsuits against five monitor manufacturers—Hisense, Samsung, TCL, Sony, and LG—alleging that they collect user information in ways that violate state laws.
According to reports, the «LG Monitor App Installer» application, which installs automatically upon connection, gains full permissions to the operating system and network connection. Furthermore, a recent software update for some LG monitors not only enables advertisements but also places the burden on the user to request permission from any third party in the home, notifying them that their voice may be recorded and processed to comply with anti-wiretapping laws. All of this is buried within the monitor's terms of use.
During Gamers Nexus' testing, a McAfee and LG pop-up appeared in the corner of the screen in 31 out of 32 computer restarts. It is important to note that LG is not the only company doing this. In the past, users have complained about Alienware software installing automatically after connecting certain Dell monitors, and Logitech, Asus, Gigabyte, and Razer have also faced complaints regarding unwanted software bundled with their products. However, in recent weeks, user anger across the web, particularly on platforms like Reddit, has been directed primarily at LG.
Microsoft decided to intervene, but not completely
Internet backlash has had an effect, and not thanks to LG, but rather to Microsoft. The company announced that it had reached an agreement with LG to disable the McAfee pop-ups: «We appreciate that LG is working with us in collaboration on the shared vision of creating a better experience for all our shared customers. We will continue to improve the experience with all our partners in the ecosystem.» One might ask: perhaps Microsoft should start by stopping the push for Office and OneDrive ads after its own updates?
By the way, Microsoft is still not preventing LG from installing the «LG Monitor App Installer» entirely. As soon as you connect a new monitor to your computer, you are still allowing it to install software capable of tracking various activities. Microsoft itself acknowledges that this is a problematic practice; on its developer support page, it notes: «The auto-install feature does not provide a notification to the user when the application is installed. Some users may find this experience confusing and frustrating.» It is quite something to know that they are aware of the issue while continuing to allow it.
