It seems Lenovo installs malware on their PCs (in purpose)

Supposedly "consumer lines only," so no thinkpad products; however, that doesn't exactly inspire confidence...
 
I"ve been telling people for years not to buy lenovo. They usually don't listen because of cost
 
I never use OEM-installed OS. Always reload from scratch. I learned the importance of this from a business experience where unexplainable network and software problems would occur with machines and the business software (QuickBooks Enterprise), all of which vanished after reloading all machines with a single image made with a vanilla install of Windows and Acronis TrueImage. We experienced these problems for months and I did everything I could to resolve it except for imaging until the end. It isn't just programs OEMs install (all of which I uninstalled) -- there's all kinds of unknown things they put into the registry, driver hacks, and other modifications they make too. These were business-grade ThinkCentre PCs! Things have been running incredibly smoothly without fail for the last 8-10 months since imaging them; it's black and white.

I have a multi-version Windows 8 ISO from TechNet that has worked flawlessly for me on any machine with a SLIC (identified by a Windows 8 sticker on the bottom of machine), and for Windows 7 you can download the Ultimate edition ISO from DigitalRiver --> use Microsoft's USB burner program and "burn" the ISO to a flash drive --> delete \sources\ei.cfg.

:)
 
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Supposedly "consumer lines only," so no thinkpad products; however, that doesn't exactly inspire confidence...


Yes I have problems trusting companies that pull stuff like this. They can switch their definition of "consumer lines only," anytime they want.
 
Came to confirm. I have never used a factory install when I bought a machine.

Agreed, I always end up swapping drives out anyway, keeping the factory drive intact for warranty service or resale (usually get the crappiest version, since the upgrade from manuf is so expensive...).

I've always appreciated the Thinkpad line; what is the preferred alternative now? Dell? HP?
 
Agreed, I always end up swapping drives out anyway, keeping the factory drive intact for warranty service or resale (usually get the crappiest version, since the upgrade from manuf is so expensive...).

I've always appreciated the Thinkpad line; what is the preferred alternative now? Dell? HP?

We use Lenovo's at work, but they were all re-imaged out of the box. I really like the HP Pro/Elitebook lines. I would honestly stick to either one of these two.
 
We use Lenovo's at work, but they were all re-imaged out of the box. I really like the HP Pro/Elitebook lines. I would honestly stick to either one of these two.

Yeah, I am torn. I like Thinkpads; always fresh install, etc.; but do not want to support a company that thinks this is ok on any of their devices.
 
That was stupid of Lenovo to do. It's easy to remove Superfish: run certmgr.msc, click Trusted Root..., click the line for Superfish and press the delete key. Reinstallation is overkill for this.
 
I agree it was stupid for Lenovo to do this. IMO this was a breach of trust, one could say they pulled a Sony ;)

Even if it's easy for us to remove it it's still not ok.

They crossed a line, it's one thing to put crapware such as stupid trial editions of stupid software but installing spyware/adware is a big no no.
 
I was really looking at Lenovo for my next laptop (currently a Lenovo Thinkpad user), but not anymore. This is just negligence. It's silly.
 
That was stupid of Lenovo to do. It's easy to remove Superfish: run certmgr.msc, click Trusted Root..., click the line for Superfish and press the delete key. Reinstallation is overkill for this.

Not really, if you can't trust them with this, what else have they installed people do not know about yet...
 
Not really, if you can't trust them with this, what else have they installed people do not know about yet...
what about the things that you don't know about that IBM, Microsoft, Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Toshiba, Dell, Acer, Sony, and other companies do? :rolleyes:
 
Really i dont give a shit what crap they put on the laptop out the door it is not keeping the slow and moving drive it comes with.

So do they still have decent quality hardware?
 
Lenovo has changed its attitude and has an uninstall tool to get rid of this, so I wouldn't rule the brand out completely.

Still, this seems to highlight a problem in the Windows PC market: that the narrow profit margins and lack of control from Microsoft gives vendors way too many incentives to ruin your experience in the name of money. I'm half-surprised that we haven't seen Microsoft's Signature Edition policies take off among individual vendors. Apple is practically the only big computer company that offers 'clean' installs across the board.
 
Microsoft needs to step in and revoke Lenovo's authority to distribute Windows.
 
So you're trying to say MS should destroy Lenovo because they made a mistake?
Not only that, but perhaps one thing would leader to another: antitrust suit

I doubt Microsoft would want one of those over its arse
 
Still remember receiving the R61 back in 2008. Out of the box experience was shit. Lots of pre-installed crap. Seems like hasn't change much. It's 2015, Lenovo needs a wake up call.
 
I feel like iphone and android phones are preinstalled so-called adware too. Yet, installing such adware without user agreement is not acceptable.

Apple doesn't allow bundling of any third-party apps on iOS or Macs.
 
^^ and yet MS is sued left and right for the same thing or even thinking about it.
it is more a political issue than it is a legal issue.

Would be fun to see someone sue Apple using 99% same wording as those that sued Microsoft for third-party bundling successfully.

Then again, what a waste of time. Everything is going to fall apart eventually anyway. More important things in life to focus on
 
is there any reason to boot a fresh out of box lenovo the first time with its own drive? Cause im gonna buy a lenovo laptop soonish and i dont plan on using the hdd it comes with. So i was planning on pulling it and putting my SSD in probably with either windows 10 tech preview or win 8.1
 
I would boot the laptop at least once and take a screenshot of device manager. It'll make your job hunting for device drivers a little bit easier.
 
I would boot the laptop at least once and take a screenshot of device manager. It'll make your job hunting for device drivers a little bit easier.

Could you not download those from lenovo's site before you start they should have every driver for a model on the models support page.
 
Rule of thumb is you should nuke the hard drive of any new machine you get (unless you get a Mac or a Surface in case of which no proprietary stuff will be installed). But I am indeed very disappointed in Lenovo because this is beyond anything I expected.

My dad has been using Lenovo at work and at home for years and just bought another last week and bam he had this crap on it. But not only that, the install was also screwed up and Norton somehow destroyed the Windows 8 app permissions so nothing would work. Manufacturers need to stop fucking around with their software distribution.

This is no longer just embarrassing. This is stupidity on the edge of criminality.
 
Could you not download those from lenovo's site before you start they should have every driver for a model on the models support page.

You can, but it's been my experience that some computer manufacturers provide multiple peripherals/parts/components variations for a given model.

example: the onboard ethernet and wifi might either be an intel or broadcom. the touchpad could be either a synaptic or eltech. etc...

my point is that it would make it easier in getting the right drivers quicker.
 
Rule of thumb is you should nuke the hard drive of any new machine you get (unless you get a Mac or a Surface in case of which no proprietary stuff will be installed). But I am indeed very disappointed in Lenovo because this is beyond anything I expected.

My dad has been using Lenovo at work and at home for years and just bought another last week and bam he had this crap on it. But not only that, the install was also screwed up and Norton somehow destroyed the Windows 8 app permissions so nothing would work. Manufacturers need to stop fucking around with their software distribution.

This is no longer just embarrassing. This is stupidity on the edge of criminality.

Egads. I'm glad Lenovo is making amends with its leaner software policy and removal tools, but this is a friendly reminder: that Windows PC at the store is often cheap because it's loaded with bloatware.
 
Lenovo is no worse than the proprietary junkware on Apple like Facetime, Pages/Numbers/Keynote that lacks full Microsoft Office compatibility, Quicktime which is malware, iCloud with its security breach that leaked pictures of people's orifices all around the internet, iTunes (junkware to transfer files to/from your mobile devices, really?), etc. Microsoft, surprisingly, is the leader for nearly zero junkware with its Surface Pro series and also any Signature Edition from other manufacturers sold at Microsoft retail stores and online. Microsoft is best for consumers that tend not to wipe and install a fresh OS. For businesses, Thinkpad line isn't affected by Superfish and is usually purchased by enterprises so they get wiped with company image.

As for security vulnerabilities there's no comparison:

http://www.gfi.com/blog/most-vulnerable-operating-systems-and-applications-in-2014/
 
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Egads. I'm glad Lenovo is making amends with its leaner software policy and removal tools,

They are only making "amends" because they were caught with their pants down. They would keep on this disgusting practice if they were never caught. :mad::mad::mad:

Disgusting company and its a shame because I like some of the machines they make, like the recent Yoga Pro 3.
 
I dont know why this story gets so much attention. Every major OEM for the past 10 years has done this, or very similar. You don't buy a new PC without having crapware all over it. Hell, you can hardly download programs these days without them trying to trick you into installing any number of things. The worse of which mess up your DNS (sometimes irreversibly) after uninstalling.

Fresh install, every time. Even business laptops come with crapware... it's amazing to find this stuff on company laptops... surely everyone has an image they use these days.
 
I dont know why this story gets so much attention. s.

Because it was channeling encrypted data through their systems.

Every major OEM for the past 10 years has done this, or very similar.

Not quite like this.

Fresh install, every time. Even business laptops come with crapware... it's amazing to find this stuff on company laptops... surely everyone has an image they use these days.

Think about all the regular folk' that just buy laptops/desktops and just use them, not many people know it's common practice to just wipe the drive clean and start from fresh.

They also don't make it easy, you have to find the OS media, burn it or put it on a flash drive then go through the process of re-installing a fresh OS.
 

Great link and the chart that tells the story is:

OS-chart.jpg


Apple is simply a Security mess.
 
That blog has been updated with additional info. iOS is scary with 127 compared to Android with total of 6. There's marketing and there's reality. Same for antivirus I don't bother with marketing fluff but rely on real data based on VirusTotal.

https://threatcenter.crdf.fr/?Stats
 
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