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Lenovo Software Update Stealthily Installs Adware

Posted by timothy on from the if-goodwill-means-absolutely-nothing-to-you dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A recent Lenovo automatic software update has the great feature of displaying annoying pop-up ads for Lenovo products. What's worse, it appears that many users are unable to turn the advertisement 'feature' off, subjecting them to pop-ups every couple of hours. Gee guys, a note about your 20% off sale in my e-mail wouldn't have bothered me that much, but you really had to pop up over top of my PowerPoint slides? I'm sure that all of my office colleagues will be running to order ThinkPads ..."

29 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Wait... by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

    It hid some guy's PowerPoint presentation? I'd consider that a feature not a bug.

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    1. Re:Wait... by TommydCat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Funny, but this is a serious credibility whack as their products are considered top notch for business. They'll find out when they interfere with business being done, it's a long fall down...
      Somehow I think someone in management is busy whacking the undo button as furiously as possible as the media exposure rises.

      --
      This comment does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the author.
    2. Re:Wait... by Stargoat · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I will preface this by saying that until today, I was an IBM / Lenovo shop with over 150 PCs in production.

      This does not take a serious whack at Lenovo's credibility, this completely destroys it. I was willing to overlook crappy drivers and twenty hotfixes to make their garbage laptops work. But this is the straw that broke the camel's back. If I need a new laptop for my users, I will be getting Toshiba. I will be looking for a new desktop manufacturer as well.

      --
      Hoist Number One and Number Six.
    3. Re:Wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Toshiba can't give you the same SKU globally. Of course, we're a lot bigger organization - 90,000 machines, half of them notebooks - all of the notebooks Lenovo. No large company allows the Lenovo software (if it is even installed; it isn't on ours) to auto-update. So we will never notice this. It wouldn't update anyway even if it was loaded since our users are not administrators. If it wasn't for seeing this on Slashdot I'd never see it. BTW, these notebooks seem to be pretty darn good. Their docking solutions seem about the best available.

      Since you are looking for business desktops, take a look at the dc7900 and later from HP - they are pretty nice machines (we've been using HP for our desktops).

    4. Re:Wait... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Unless Toshiba's build quality has improved markedly in the past couple of years, I'd urgently advise not going down that road. We had 30-odd Toshiba tablets in service here, and they were hell. Shoddy build quality, horrendous shovelware, near-worthless driver download site. Our experience with both Dell and HP has been markedly better.

  2. Hmmm. by y_axis · · Score: 5, Funny

    Annoying ad pop-up or Death by PowerPoint? Nope. Can't decide.

  3. No kidding! by C_Kode · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I ran into this problem the other day. It ask you if you do not want to show the ads anymore, but it doesn't accept your answer and shows them over and over. I finally figured out what app was causing it and disabled it in msconfig. I can't remember what it was right now, but when I get home I will reply to this with the name of the app to disable.

    btw, I got the adware when I installed the Thinkpad Wireless software.

    1. Re:No kidding! by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you uninstall "message center plus" it fixes it.

    2. Re:No kidding! by Snowblindeye · · Score: 4, Informative

      I finally figured out what app was causing it and disabled it in msconfig. I can't remember what it was right now, but when I get home I will reply to this with the name of the app to disable.

      According to the article its called Message Center Plus. Here's uninstall instructions from the linked thread:

      Just go to control panel and uninstall [Message Center] in add/remove programs.
      Next time you use System Update when it tries to reinstall Message Center Plus, click on the plus sign and instead of selecting it in the enlarged menu choose hide the update. Then you won't see it next time you run System Update. Of course if Lenovo brings out new releases of Message Center Plus you will have to hide them too.

      And here, also from the thread, instructions to disable it without uninstalling:

      start-->runs-->type msconfig--->go to menue tab --> startup ---> in the list of startup items--->
      unhook
      [ ] MCPLaunch
      &
      [ ] Scheduler_proxy
      -->apply--> ok then a restart is required--> system
      after restart
      -->set in the upcoming message a hook , so that it next time didnt comes up..

  4. this is dumb by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is the reason that I build my own computers whenever possible - the manufacturers install crap upon crap on your box. This is just taking it to the next level.

    I wonder what it would cost to build computers without the annoying shit installed. Is that all that's making them profitable?

    1. Re:this is dumb by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 3, Informative

      newegg.com, where any serious builder does his shopping.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    2. Re:this is dumb by fafaforza · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wow, look at that. No TrackPoint? Check. Build aesthetics that make my phat NintendoDS look slim and elegant? Check. Right.

    3. Re:this is dumb by gad_zuki! · · Score: 3, Informative

      I just bought my brother a little lenovo and was shocked at the amount and general crapiness of the lenovo apps it came with. One of them was crashing at bootup. Its amazing how bad the situation is with OEM crapware nowadays.

      I spent 30 minutes doing uninstalls. Err no thanks Lenovo, I dont need your unstable wireless manager when the MS one is just fine.

      Once I cleared it all it ran like a top. I wish MS would step in and stop them from ruining otherwise decent laptops.

    4. Re:this is dumb by thepotoo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yes, newegg users are paragons of intellect and their reviews are universally useful.

      Pros: Why is everyone so hung up on overclocking??The truth is that the performance of your P/C depends on the combination of a lot of things. Although this MB's awardbios software is awesome, to much emphasize is placed on overclocking. I had some bottleneck issues that were solved by buying this motherboard and a 550w power supply with 25a on 12v rail. I have a dual core athlon 175 opteron! and a 10,000rpm Western Digital SATA drive to boot. Why in the world would I need to overclock that??

      Cons: None! I hear a lot of people complaing about instructions. Well, I think that most mother boards are pretty much the same installation wise. A first timer would have issues with any mb, not just this one. The only issue is that the board is kinda picky about what slots you put the ram in. I used matching ram sticks and placed each one in a yellow slot. The mb booted up just fine after that.

      Other Thoughts: Don't believe the hype about Overclocking! Its overrated and frankly doesnt do much for the performance of you PC.

      Another:

      Quote: Pros: Works like a tank and has full integration.

      Cons: After removal of computer clock speed jumpers the system would not boot. The 80mm fan & heatsync we purchased did not fit & snap onto the processor & motherboard.

      Other Thoughts: We now are looking into refund of the heatsync & fan for another future purchase from newegg.com

      Wait, there's more (this one can't be serious):

      Pros: This thing is great! Before I could only play Solitare and Minesweeper on their lowest settings but now I can play as many as 4 games of Solitare at the same time.

      Cons: I can't figure out where to install the second core.

      One more, then, just to prove that a CPU is more important than your internet connection:

      Pros: MY GOSH WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT OVER MY HYPER THREAD 2.8..I GOT THIS STRICLY FOR GAMING (BF2). I HAVE BEEN FIRST IN THE SERVER EVERY TIME..I DOWNLOADED 3 MAPS AND A PATCH (9 GIGS) IN UNDER 15MINS.

      Cons: THIS THING NEEDS TO COME WITH A GIRLFRIEND ....

      Other Thoughts: PAIR IT WITH SOME KICKBUTT RAM, AND YOULL BE KILLIN EVERYONE IN NO TIME

      There's one more I really like that I can't seem to find now. It was regarding a new processor and went something like:

      The installation was a little tough, I needed to use a hammer to get it installed, but I think most new CPUs are a little tough to install nowadays.

      Of course, if someone makes a mistake, there's always someone willing to help you out:

      Pros: Great Cards, howeevr witht he R600 series coming out shrotly, I would save your money for those.

      Cons: Not DX10 as CpuLouie said

      Other Thoughts: CpuLouie while DX10 is software, the ability to run DX10 is in the hardware. Why do you think the 8800 series are so big? Your 7950 will not run DX10 either. sorry

      The point of this is just to use a little common sense with the reviews. Most of them are fine.

      Also, I just realized that this has run on pretty long. It this EVER shows up as one of those stupid email chains in my inbox, I'm personally going to hunt down and destroy everyone who forwarded it.

      --
      Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
  5. Lenovo has officially jumped the shark by religious+freak · · Score: 5, Informative

    The last thing Lenovo wanted to happen is to dilute the Thinkpad brand and screw up a good thing, when they purchased thinkpad from IBM. Knowing this, I bought a Thinkpad, and the thing totally blows, their customer service is bad and they install way too much crapware on the PC by default (even more than the average manufacturer). Way to go guys...

    --
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  6. Two problems, hard to say which more serious by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From reading the discussion forums, there are two problems:

    1) System is not obeying checkbox to not show specific message again.

    2) System is presenting ads through software installed by the vendor, not by email or browser.

    At first #1 seems to be the bigger problem, as if you could check a box not to see the message again you'll only be bothered once... until you read the bit about "specific" again. Checking that box by design is supposed to only block that EXACT ad, not others that may come later...

    That was indeed an insane choice to include by a vendor. As noted, these could pop up at the most inconvenient time. Even if you dismiss one and it worked, you never know when you may get another.

    I'm sure they'll get rid of this soon, but it has to go down in history as one of the bigger WTF moments in vendor specific software installs.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  7. Obligatory Snark by ewhac · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This issue only affects Windows users.

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    Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
    1. Re:Obligatory Snark by snl2587 · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...or, really, just the people who leave on the vendor-installed operating system and actually use the Lenovo software updates.

  8. Its over by spire3661 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thats it folks, thinkpads are officially dethroned as the king of business laptops.

    --
    Good-bye
    1. Re:Its over by fafaforza · · Score: 3, Informative

      My T61 will probably be my last. I waited about 2 months for repair to be done on plastic pieces that wouldn't latch close properly. One location was never fixed, even though I clearly labeled it.

      Recently extended my warranty only to look it up the other day and see that it shows as expired.

      My model doesn't show up on their support site when trying to download drivers/software, but does when I enter the serial.

      Plus the aluminum cage made it thicker, heavier, and less elegant. And now that they're in the hands of Lenovo, I wouldn't be expecting any improvements.

      If anything, they'll ruin the line by adding their own touches. When will purple backlighting on buttons make its appearance? The T400s is sporting lights on volume buttons and the caps lock key. The thing must look like a Christmas tree in the dark. And don't get me started on the Esc key that's TWO ROWS HIGH. Walk away, folks.

    2. Re:Its over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They were already on their way out the moment they were purchased by a foreign company with some degree of state control.

      (Yeah, even the "domestic" companies foreign-source most of their parts but at least the system design is domestically controlled.)

      I work for a defense contractor, the moment the Lenovo buyout happened we stopped buying Thinkpads and went to Dell. It was pretty much mandated by the customer. (If I recall correctly, there were a lot of news articles about the government banning further Thinkpad purchases post-Lenovo across the board around that time.)

      Now, Lenovo has effectively done just what the US government feared they might do - try to sneak stuff onto customers' machines for their own gain.

      Who knows what else in addition to this adware is getting slipped to customers?

  9. compatibility by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if it's compatible with the rootkit that Sony so kindly installed for me?

  10. What the hell were they thinking? by WCMI92 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What idiot in marketing (marketing majors have no souls) convinced an even bigger idiot in management that this would be a good idea?

    People LOVE popups, right, everyone knows this, right?

    A stunt like this isn't going to increase sales, it's going to DECREASE them. And, this is yet another example why I DO NOT run any sort of automatic update. I update software/drivers, etc, when I feel a NEED to do so, if it's working, leave it alone. Updates only usually end up in adding more bloat to a system anyway, look at how Acrobat reader is 10 times the size it was a couple years ago yet doesn't do anything significantly different.

    --
    Corporatism != Free Market
    1. Re:What the hell were they thinking? by greg1104 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The worst virus/malware cleanup I've done in the last year installed itself via an Acrobat reader security vulnerability. "Don't update Acrobat" isn't really a viable solution to their bloat problem because of that class of issue. More useful ones are "Install Foxit Reader" and "Use Evince on Linux".

  11. Change of Plans by Deton8 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wow, that's an incredibly stupid thing for Lenovo to do. I was about to order a Lenovo for my next laptop and if it worked out I was going to ask our IT department to change from the current incumbents (Dell and Sony) to Lenovo for our sales and executive staff. I'm going to wait to see that this issue is fully resolved before making a move, and if they don't fix it, they can forget about 20 to 30 laptop orders a year from my company. I don't think my emotion would be unique -- I'm sure 90% of IT managers would disqualify Lenovo if they knew about this spam pop-up problem and didn't have an easy way to disable it enterprise-wide. Billions of dollars are at risk for something that probably only brings them a few hundred K$ per year. Bone-headed.

  12. What would make it even better... by roc97007 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The only thing that would make this better is if Lenovo sold ad space. Imagine explaining the pr0n popups during your next big presentation. This seems so inevitable that I'm astonished that they haven't already done it.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  13. LENOVO!! by Icegryphon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What are you doing?! You are ruining BigBlue's legacy.
    You should be the best of the best for business.
    Stop adding all this extra Adware, crap software on new systems
    I am ashamed to be a IBM fan right now.. Ashamed.

  14. I have a great idea by Akita24 · · Score: 3, Informative

    How about all you HARDWARE manufacturers sell me HARDWARE and stay the fuck out of the SOFTWARE business. Unlike Windows which I've only "rented" from Microsoft, I BOUGHT your damned hardware. It's now MINE. When I update a BIOS or install a driver, what I want is a BIOS or a driver, not you shill for some lame-assed POS software. Fuck off already. Assholes.

  15. Wait till they install by JohnnyGTO · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Green Dam software. :-)

    --
    Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!