This. Microsoft has chosen to allow this functionality, despite it being a very clear breach of trust with customers.

LG/Dell/et al should be shamed and blamed for even trying this shit in the first place, but it’s Microsoft who holds the blame for allowing such malware and spyware trash through their own update service.

You’re acting like Microsoft aren’t pushing malware themselves.

That's just a parallel fact, no one's "acting" like anything?

What were you actually trying to say?

I am saying that people here seem to be appealing to Microsoft as an authority that should be interested in stopping this, perhaps because they are morally superior or concerned about their reputation. They are not.

No, Microsoft should be stopping this because Microsoft is doing it, and it is wrong. HDMI does not, to my knowledge, provide a mechanism for loading code: it's Microsoft software looking the product model up in a Microsoft database, downloading the appropriate malware, and executing it with elevated privileges (bypassing UAC).

How in the world does that absolve Dell/etc, OR reduce Microsoft’s culpability for letting their update service be abused?