Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers

Re:Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers by ptaipale on Thursday February 19, 2015 @02:45AM (#9072917)

All laptops contain something which some people consider bloatware, because it is difficult to draw the line.

For instance, is it "only the OS installed" if it includes hardware-specific support for the display adapter, or a fingerprint reader?

Anyway, all laptops I have seen include either a generic Windows OS installation disk, or an option to order one for the price of mailing cost. But of course even with these you might have something included which you do not consider "only the OS".

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Re:Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers by cjg on Thursday February 19, 2015 @03:26AM (#9073006)

That seems like a pretty easy line to draw. If the software is effectively a device driver - OK; otherwise - no.

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Re:Lenovo Caught Installing Adware on New Computers by ptaipale on Thursday February 19, 2015 @04:37AM (#9073198)

Well, not for me. Like, what about the login management related to fingerprint reader? The reader and device driver are quite useless by themselves if you cannot use them for login. So the laptop vendor obviously bundles the driver and application together. And then you get an app that hooks itself in the place where you normally give your password. And might hook another application which does an alternative login method using the built-in camera (facial recognition).

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