Lenovo used Windows anti-theft feature to install persistent crapware

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

My brother just spend 2 Grand on a top end Leveno Laptop with Windows 7. Should he be worried about THIS ?

 

[beginner99]

I own a Lenovo X220. Had no issues with it so far. But right now I would not recommended buying anything from them due to multiple recent issues. Google for superfish. And now this. This is probably not a security risk but it is f*** annyoing and very, very anti-consumer. The only way to make it go away is to not buy Lenovo and if you are pissed, go around on tech forums and hint at this everywhere. Nowadays a single person can achieve much against stuff like this.

 

[nickb64]

They do offer a tool that is supposed to remove that

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product_security/lse_bios_notebook

 

[Commodus]

If your brother has a ThinkPad-branded system, it's not an issue... and you can remove it if you don't like it.

With that said, the whole thing is a reminder of why I'll continue to buy Macs for the foreseeable future. Third-party software should never, ever have permission to overwrite key OS files or take over certain processes (see: Samsung disabling Windows Update until recently).

And it's especially icky when it's limited to "just" the home-oriented PCs. I never really understand the industry's fondness for creating two-tier lineups where getting a clean OS, solid build quality and decent support requires buying business models (or at least a higher-end home system). Every PC always deserves that level of consideration.

 

[ClockHound]

Reminds me of the Toshiba domestic Japanese laptop models that used to ship with everything you could hope to never install. The entire desktop filled with shortcuts to over 20 Gigs of crapware (on a 60GB drive). Not a single pixel left on the desktop for the 'user' to place a single shortcut. And some of the crapware would activate on hover! Suddenly you'd be chasing a rental deal on a Tokyo apt - top that Cortana! The crapware, an insider told me, paid most of the BOM cost for Toshiba.

However, on principle, Lenovo sucks. The superfish fiasco was enough to never trust them again.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yeah, he was debating between a Macbook Pro or some form of laptop Mac or this Lenovo. I'll ask him if it's a Thinkpad.. not sure. He bought a top of the line business model afaik.. only has a dual core with hyper-threading though. I think a quad would do better for business type apps

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

It's a Thinkpad 450s

 

[tcsenter]

This was removed from my Lenovo G50-80 BIOS a few versions ago, BIOS update that was released back in February IIRC. I always grab a newer BIOS and firmware if available, on the day I first boot it up.