New Dell has hiccups-- are these the suspects

I have a new Dell Inspiron W11 15-5510 (build 22000-6.1.3). I lost my internet connection and had to call Dell. It eventually got resolved. But in the process he had me (well he did it remotely) do a bunch of Dell Updates and he installed some stuff. My computer has now become sluggish; slowing down, taking longer, etc. I suspect bloatware from Dell. Can I get some opinions about these items in my Control Panel Programs/Features:

1. Dell SupportAssist
   
2. Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin For Dell Update
   
3. Dell SupportAssist Remediation
   
4. Dell Update for Windows Universal

#3 had already been there. The others were installed by him. They may have been there when I got the computer and may have been uninstalled by me when I first got the computer. So, I am asking: can I uninstall the above.

Also – and maybe more importantly – there is this Dell Data Vault that suddenly appeared. It is definitely doing stuff but it is not listed in the control panel. This might be a cause of some of my computer woes. It's also listed (with variations) 3 times in services (running). I've stopped that. I see via google the advice to delete the Dell Data Vault folder. Suggestions?


Finally – maybe related – it appears that I am getting less and less free space on my disk. I am not sure, but I'll keep an eye on it. I vaguely recall there was a freeware program that would show the relative software space used.

Anyway, thank you for previous advice. I hope to pay it forward as I get more familiar with W11.

Mel





Mel

compiler said:

They may have been there when I got the computer and may have been uninstalled by me when I first got the computer. So, I am asking: can I uninstall the above.

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Although not critical, you only need items #1 & #2.

Dell SupportAssist (SA) supposedly maintains all your Dell & pre-installed OEM drivers. SA gives a convenient way of test your Dell hardware and Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin for Dell Update is only used if you use Dell Update. Dell Data Vault is generated when you run SA & I never use Dell Update; I've found that SA & Update do not always pick up the latest updates for my Dell Inspiron 3670

I always manually check for updates here.

By the by, the Windows 11 version is erroneous - mine is Windows 11 Pro v 21H2 (Build 22000.652).

You can find out yours by hitting Windows+R => winver

compiler said:

Dell SupportAssist Remediation

Click to expand...

This has something to do with SA - I've never heard of it before.

Depending on what version you have installed, Dell support assist 3.11 has been problematic for me. Had to go back to 10.4.1

I am so tempted to nix all the Dell Support stuff. It's only been maybe an hour of computing, but since I "STOPPED" dELL Data Vault in services, thie computer is behaving much better. It's annoying that this program (or whatever it is) is not listed in Control Panel's program list. I may delete the folder (it's in program files/Dell). I'm a bit hesitant on that.
Also my free disk space still seems to be shrinking.
Any ideas how to track that down?

Mel

Support assist is also integrated with the POST (Power On Self Test) and hardware diagnostics (accessed from F12 Menu).
We see SA problems on the Dell forums but not to the point of slowdown.
Disabling in start up is my suggestion.

Here is the Dell support forum section for Support Assist:

Its your call but I would nix all that Dell support bloatware, turn off windows defender and system restore,, and you'll notice a much bigger difference. Now I'm not going to leave your system defenseless, I would immunize your system with UVK and run all dodgy programs in Sandboxie. You're welcome.