Dell took my SupportAssist

Almighty1 said:

I know but remember @fireberd said he ran Dell Forums so his role is small, whether he uses a Dell branded machine or not is another issue.

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He then said that he has a Dell Inspiron that he uses in his home music recording studio. So he does have a Dell machine.

TraderGary said:

He then said that he has a Dell Inspiron that he uses in his home music recording studio. So he does have a Dell machine.

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Yes but what I meant was your initial reaction in post #19. He works there, not someone that is significant to Dell Inc. like Michael Dell, the later I would have more high expectations of using Dell/EMC/VMWare/Alienware products.

Dell "Support Assist" downloaded a new version - (which when the year was up in 2023) I did not renew?

Anyone else get another, or Version 4.X SupportAssist ?? regards...

remover said:

I did not renew?

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Not sure exactly what you mean by "renew". There is unlimited use of Support Assist app and it is free for all Dell Owners. They can use it to keep their drivers updated. I prefer the Dell Command Update app for this purpose, but SA works as well.

glasskuter said:

I prefer the Dell Command Update app for this purpose, but SA works as well.

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The Dell Command stuff is for business machines, such as your OptiPlexes. Support Assist is for consumer devices.

pseymour said:

The Dell Command stuff is for business machines, such as your OptiPlexes. Support Assist is for consumer devices.

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I've had several Dell XPS 15 laptops and they've all come with both "Dell Command | Update" and "Dell SupportAssist".

remover said:

Anyone else get another, or Version 4.X SupportAssist ?? regards...

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Here is mine, just updated yesterday.



As was suggested earlier on, SupportAssist is not in my StartUp folder

Edit: Here is the whole Dell shebang I have (6 entries)

Like @Haydon I had the "whole shebang" when I got my PC. I uninstalled everything but Dell Command Update which I removed from Startup. I changed the 2 Dell services to manual start. Now, I use DCU when I want to check for updates. If there's an update to DCU app, the application will update itself when I manually check for drivers which I do every month or so. It is especially good at keeping my UEFI bios updated without any muss or fuss on my behalf. This is the app I rely on the most to keep my drivers updated.
Once, when I was working with Dell on a problem, I had to reinstall Support Assist and make the service auto start until we got the problem resolved. Afterwards, I uninstalled it again.

Best of luck with DSA. I fixed a friend's PC last year which would randomly hang by removing DSA which was no easy task.

glasskuter said:

Like @Haydon I had the "whole shebang" when I got my PC. I uninstalled everything but Dell Command Update which I removed from Startup. I changed the 2 Dell services to manual start. Now, I use DCU when I want to check for updates. If there's an update to DCU app, the application will update itself when I manually check for drivers which I do every month or so. It is especially good at keeping my UEFI bios updated without any muss or fuss on my behalf. This is the app I rely on the most to keep my drivers updated.
Once, when I was working with Dell on a problem, I had to reinstall Support Assist and make the service auto start until we got the problem resolved. Afterwards, I uninstalled it again.

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Why did you uninstall the apps?

I've had only Dell computers for over 25 years, except for a couple of Microsoft Surface pros. Because of the work I do, I always have two or more computers running at the same time. I've never had any major problems with Dell and that's why I continue to buy them. I run Dell Command | Update every day and every few weeks I run SupportAssist. I like to think that's why I don't have problems.

Like others I was offered an update to Dell SupportAssist yesterday, which I did on our 3 Dell PC's - updated from 3.14.2.45116 to 4.0.0.51819. After the update I noticed that this latest version, which has a new interface, was much slower in scanning than the last version - perhaps it's just the new version bedding in? One other thing I noticed is that if I look at Reliability Monitor in Control Panel, multiple error messages - "SupportAssistSoftwareDiags.exe Stopped Working" and also "SupportAssist Stopped Working". There is no other error message shown while using this App and it completes normally, if slowly. There was also an update to Dell Update/Command from 5.1.0 to 5.2.0 which I did manually as I have never been able to update Dell Update using SupportAssist without problems.

TraderGary said:

I've had several Dell XPS 15 laptops and they've all come with both "Dell Command | Update" and "Dell SupportAssist".

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I'm not sure what your point is. Some XPS models are business machines.

"Dell Command | Update is a stand-alone application for commercial client computers that provides updates for system software that is released by Dell." (Dell Command | Update | Dell US)

pseymour said:

I'm not sure what your point is. Some XPS models are business machines.

"Dell Command | Update is a stand-alone application for commercial client computers that provides updates for system software that is released by Dell." (Dell Command | Update | Dell US)

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Don't mind me. I'm just an old man making inane comments here and there.

glasskuter said:

Not sure exactly what you mean by "renew". There is unlimited use of Support Assist app and it is free for all Dell Owners. They can use it to keep their drivers updated. I prefer the Dell Command Update app for this purpose, but SA works as well.

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"I did not renew" - the Dell SupportAssist !! After a year they wanted more $$$. for the use of Support Assist? (see pic again) but I can still use SA. It still does it's thing...

TraderGary said:

Don't mind me. I'm just an old man making inane comments here and there.

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evidently my DCU was not installed or I have to download it? correct me pls. if I'm wrong. If I type in Dell Command Update, a Bing search page comes up to download it & install it....

@pseymour
Sheesh!!!Lots of nitpicking going on here. The main point that should be taken from this discussion is that Dell offers two avenues for keeping drivers updated. Use whichever your machine has or both if you have them and are of a mind to do so.

All Dells in recent years come with Support Assist.(fact)
If one clean installs or deletes SA, he can go to the support page for his device and download Support Assist (also fact)

If one's support page for his Dell device ST# lists Dell Command Update as well as SA, that device can use either or both.(fact #3)

Official Dell description of what devices Dell Command Update will run on here. It does not specify devices as business or consumer as both businesses and consumers purchase these devices (FACT#4). Dell Command | Update | Driver Details | Dell US

glasskuter said:

@pseymour
Sheesh!!!Lots of nitpicking going on here. The main point that should be taken from this discussion is that Dell offers two avenues for keeping drivers updated. Use whichever your machine has or both if you have them and are of a mind to do so.

All Dells in recent years come with Support Assist.(fact)
If one clean installs or deletes SA, he can go to the support page for his device and download Support Assist (also fact)

If one's support page for his Dell device ST# lists Dell Command Update as well as SA, that device can use either or both.(fact #3)

Official Dell description of what devices Dell Command Update will run on here. It does not specify devices as business or consumer as both businesses and consumers purchase these devices (FACT#4). Dell Command | Update | Driver Details | Dell US

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Thank you! I confess I never heard of DCU. But I have the current ver. of SA. installed. + running a test on the Dell Site says I up 2 date. So I'll stick with the SA. regards........

glasskuter said:

Sheesh!!!Lots of nitpicking going on here. The main point that should be taken from this discussion is that Dell offers two avenues for keeping drivers updated. Use whichever your machine has or both if you have them and are of a mind to do so.

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I never said otherwise.

glasskuter said:

All Dells in recent years come with Support Assist.(fact)

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Not a fact. I manage several thousand Dells, a few dozen different models, and they do not come with SupportAssist. Nor is it available for any of the several models I randomly searched just now on Dell's site.

glasskuter said:

If one clean installs or deletes SA, he can go to the support page for his device and download Support Assist (also fact)

If one's support page for his Dell device ST# lists Dell Command Update as well as SA, that device can use either or both.(fact #3)

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Okay? I never said anything to the contrary on these either.

glasskuter said:

Official Dell description of what devices Dell Command Update will run on here. It does not specify devices as business or consumer as both businesses and consumers purchase these devices (FACT#4). Dell Command | Update | Driver Details | Dell US

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Whether businesses or consumers purchase them is not what makes them business or consumer machines, in Dell's eyes. You're free to purchase OptiPlexes or Latitudes, just like we are.

OP mentioned that they use an Inspiron (fact). The download you linked does show the supported models (fact). The Inspiron does not appear on that list. (fact).

If you don't like what I post, just ignore it and move on. No need to keep arguing about something that is easily found on Dell's own website.

Back to regular programming, anyone care to explain what the 6 Dell apps are that I (and others) have? There were discussions on 2 of them, what about the other 4?