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134 points
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It is a part of the ASUS Armoury Crate software that is pre-installed on some ASUS PCs.

Always flash new OS if you buy a computer.

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66 points

That’s in the bios, it’s a pcie device that windows allows to inject root level code into your environement, you have to turn it off and hope nothing ever spoofs that pcie id because that’s a permanent hardware rootkit into your pc like EFI

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1 point
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Can this “feature” be turned off on Windows?

Edit: nvm, I read the article

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35 points

That’s in the bios, it’s a pcie device that windows allows to inject root level code into your environement

What. The. Fuck. Are they the only one to install their crap so deep?

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8 points
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Haha no. My work computer is HP and has similar shit.

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5 points

No my ROG board does the same.

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121 points
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That won’t get rid of it unless you also manually go into the BIOS and disable the install ASUS Armoury Crate setting as explained in the article.

If you don’t do this it will automatically reinstall even on a fresh install of Windows. Some of these bloatware programs will even install without an internet connection! This absolutely ludicrously stupid feature is called WPBT and is used by lots of manufacturers. Luckily it doesn’t work on Linux (at least for now…).

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53 points

That’s wild that it’s a BIOS setting. Just an extra level of fuck you.

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5 points

It’s for the more novice users who can assemble a PC but don’t ever think go download / install drivers afterwards.

Most of the motherboard OEMs do this. I get a lot fewer tickets where the root cause of the issue can be boiled down to “never installed drivers afterwards installing Windows”, which is also helped by the fact that many drivers are also served through Windows Update.

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1 point

It makes sense on my ROG Ally X.

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18 points

I don’t think it reinstalls itself if you install Linux

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7 points

For now…

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8 points

Yup. And here i am, always telling people to first read the linked article, before they write.

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4 points

automatically reinstall

The user is prompted to install the application.

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5 points

According to this article: https://www.techpowerup.com/248827/asus-z390-motherboards-automatically-push-software-into-your-windows-installation it has already installed services on your computer that persist restarts by the time you are prompted to install Armoury Crate. In my opinion that is not acceptable at all.

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19 points

This will be executed even on new fresh installation oob.

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14 points
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Yet another vendor-bootkit?

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7 points

He didn’t say to flash Windows. 😉

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6 points

Which distro do you recommend?

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16 points

If you want minimal hassle, Mint is the deal.

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5 points

Universal Blue is my go-to. Their OSs feel like the future. They are so easy to use and low maintenance. The upgrades happen in the background and apply automatically when you restart your computer.

There are three flavors: Bazzite for gaming Bluefin and Aurora for basic workstations and developers

I went with Aurora for myself because I like the developer focused stuff. But I also do a lot of gaming. Even though it’s not gaming focused, it’s still great for gaming.

My wife uses it on her laptop, too. She doesn’t give a shit what her OS is as long as it works and she can use the browser.

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1 point

Aurora works very well on my dell laptop

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5 points

EndeavourOS

Even for beginners it’s got a fantastic starting layout and default packages, but it’s still basically “just Arch Linux” where it counts so you get the best of both worlds.

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4 points

+1 for EndeavourOS here. For 90% of what I do, it was a virtually seamless transition. Only hang up is a few games, VR, etc.

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1 point

Garuda is probably a better option if the focus is gaming. It’s the same idea, just with a focus on gaming hardware and software ready to go, out of the gate.

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2 points

This cracks me up that everyone has a different distro to recommend… But I’ve tried many and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed was the standout that I’ve decided to stick with indefinitely.

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1 point
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Depends on your skills and what you want. I’m currently configuring a setup on Void, to learn about login, Wayland & Flatpak. Is that up your alley?

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2 points

Linux Mint or de-snapped Kubuntu.

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3 points

Hi there. I just installed Kubuntu on a spare machine, but I ran into a problem with the snaps. How would one “de-snap” it? Can you point me in the right direction?

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