• Ad-laden Roku (was: Win 10 Laptop Hijacked)

    From VanguardLH@3:633/10 to All on Mon Jul 6 20:35:20 2026
    Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

    VanguardLH wrote:

    I already mentioned they have a link on their home page on how to
    uninstall their "PC App Store" app, and it's the same way you uninstall
    most Windows software. However, if the app the OP actually downloaded
    and installed is listed, I'd uninstall that first, and the PC App Store
    last. Since the OP was flabbergasted about something asking for a
    payment, the OP doesn't want to pay for any apps from them, so get rid
    of them all: all apps from their store, and their store app.

    As for stopping a program from auto-starting, I also mentions AutoRuns
    which will expose the various locations use for startup. Besides the
    Startup registry entries (both user and common), it looks in Task
    Scheduler, Winlogon events, and more. You can delete the entry in
    Autoruns whether the software is running, or not.

    It is the practice of Roku to "ask for a credit card" as a means
    of identification, as well as "greasing the rails for future purchases".
    You can apparently fill out CC details (which will be checked) and
    then "Remove payment details" and pretend you have removed your CC details, and then if you did incur a charge for some reason, the transaction should not
    go through.

    This means the "official" application is just as crooked as the phishers.

    Thus, when seeing the name now, I don't even have to entertain the concept
    or think of installing it. The conclusion is foregone. It's a "FREE" activity that trades on private information.

    You buy the Roku device. Many channels aka apps are premium (pay).
    Even for those channels that aren't spammy, Roku wants ad revenue, too.

    https://advertising.roku.com/

    Users have various methods of trying to get rid of Roku's ads. For
    example, this guy finds several methods of killing the ads:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGjbxCTpy-c


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)