Lenovo has stopped pre-loading Superfish adware onto it new machines, but the practice has raised security and privacy concerns. Here's how to remove it. Credit: ThinkStock Lenovo’s newest laptops come preloaded with more than just the standard operating system and applications – many also include adware. The adware, Superfish’s Visual Discovery software, injects third-party ads on Google Chrome and Internet Explorer Web searches without users’ permission. In response to complaints about the adware on Lenovo forums, Mark Hopkins, program manager, Lenovo social media, initially attempted to defend the practice, writing, “Superfish comes with Lenovo consumer products only and is a technology that helps users find and discover products visually,” but the PC maker was forced to remove Superfish from consumer products in late January after numerous complaints about popups and potential concerns about privacy and “man in the middle” attacks. Such attacks occur when software like Superfish uses self-signed security certificates to snoop on secure, encrypted website traffic. “We have temporarily removed Superfish from our consumer systems until such time as Superfish is able to provide a software build that addresses these issues. As for units already in market, we have requested that Superfish auto-update a fix that addresses these issues,” writes Hopkins. If you’re not willing to wait for an auto-update fix or pay for an additional clean operating system license to overwrite the pre-installed software, here’s how to remove Superfish/Visual Discovery from your Lenovo machine. Lenovo advises simply navigating to Control Panel > Uninstall a Program, then selecting Visual Discovery > Uninstall. You can also navigate into Windows Task Manager and select Visual Discovery under the Services tab. Once selected, you right-click on the Visual Discovery service and select ‘Stop,’ as detailed in this video. Related content feature Key IT initiatives reshape the CIO agenda While cloud, cybersecurity, and analytics remain top of mind for IT leaders, a shift toward delivering business value is altering how CIOs approach key priorities, pushing transformative projects to the next phase. By Mary Pratt May 30, 2023 10 mins IT Strategy IT Leadership opinion Managing IT right starts with rightsizing IT for value While there are few universals when it comes to saying unambiguously what ‘managing IT right’ looks like, knowing how to navigate the limitless possibilities of IT is surely one. By Thornton May May 30, 2023 6 mins Digital Transformation IT Strategy IT Leadership brandpost Designing the campus of the future starts with high-quality 10Gbps connectivity By Huawei May 30, 2023 4 mins Network Architect Networking Devices Networking feature Red Hat embraces hybrid cloud for internal IT The maker of OpenShift has leveraged its own open container offering to migrate business-critical apps to AWS as part of a strategy to move beyond facilitating hybrid cloud for others and capitalize on the model for itself. By Paula Rooney May 29, 2023 5 mins CIO 100 Technology Industry Hybrid Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe