Solved Please help me fully erase the "Dell SupportAssist" app from my computer.

I want to completely uninstall the "Dell SupportAssist" app. I haven't seen anything convincing yet to make me want to keep it, whilst it otherwise seems to be bugged software. I'm following the instructions set-out by the user "Imacri" in this thread (i.e., their comment of March 8th 2023 at 06:00).

Firstly I uninstalled the "Dell SupportAssist" app from Control Panel. Then I used Revo Uninstaller Free to 'further' uninstall it. Revo did not actually detect it in its default "Uninstaller" tab, yet it did detect it in its "Windows Apps" tab.

I then watched the video linked by that "Imcari" user I mentioned above (the link in that user's comment itself is tagged as "SA Uninstall/Reinstall"); this YouTube video itself referred me in its "Description" onto a 'revised' version of itself which I then also watched. These two videos advised me to delete certain folders and Registries pertaining to the "Dell SupportAssist" app. I need some help with a few of these please:

* "C:\Program Data\SARemediation\" is still present. The videos did not mention this folder, yet it seems to be to do with the "Dell SupportAssist" app.

* "C:\Program Data\Dell\SARemediation\" is also still present. Again, the videos did not mention this folder, yet it also seems to be to do with the "Dell SupportAssist" app.

* The videos said to delete the folder "%Appdata%\PCDr", though I don't even know how to search for that folder as I don't know what the "%" symbol refers to.

* The only Registry that remains for the "Dell SupportAssist" app is
"Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\DELL\SARemediation".
Should I delete this Registry then?

The videos said to use four Command Prompt commands--
SC DELETE "SupportAssistAgent"
SC DELETE "DDVDataCollector"
SC DELETE "DDVRulesProcessor"
SC DELETE "DDVCollectorSvcApi"--

in order to delete certain Services in "services.msc". Only one of those Services was present for me, which was "Dell Client Management Service"; yet none of those above Command Prompt commands were able to delete that Service.

_william said:

Firstly I uninstalled the "Dell SupportAssist" app from Control Panel. Then I used Revo Uninstaller Free to 'further' uninstall it. Revo did not actually detect it in its default "Uninstaller" tab, yet it did detect it in its "Windows Apps" tab.

Click to expand...

The free version has limitations when not used by itself in the first instance.

??Re-install Dell program then use RevoUninstaller in its own right.

You could also try Geek Uninstaller.

As @idgat said...

...reinstall the Support Assistant, then use REVO Uninstaller free, to remove it.
Make sure you use REVO's "scan for leftovers", as well.

Try AdwCleaner now removes PC bloatware in addition to adware and PUPs.

I can see you have done a lot of what is listed but just double check.

@_william

The most important part of REVO, is the "scan for leftovers" tool.
After you uninstall DSA using REVO... REVO will offer to "scan for leftovers".
Do that, and delete whatever it finds.
All that stuff you're trying to remove manually, REVO's "scan for leftovers" will remove.

That should take care of DSA.


See post #3

Don't go poke into the registry nor delete random system or program files folders, you'll end up breaking your OS.

Follow the advice on Revo Uninstaller procedure to the point.

See if this Microsoft troubleshooter helps:

Good plan to remove DSA. I fixed a friend's laptop last year suffering from BSODs which I fixed by removing DSA. Be sure to remove Dell Data Vault too left over if you uninstall DSA. See Dell Laptop Crashing Problems - Windows 10 Help Forums

It's a good idea to uninstall ALL proprietary bloatware such as this. In most (all?) cases they simply repeat functions already provided by Windows, and just add an unnecessary burden on computer resources.

To this end, the ultimate guaranteed removal would be simply achieved by a clean install of Windows. Image the existing proprietary bloated drive as insurance, and then create a Win 11 installation boot USB and re-install Windows.

The reason why the Dell Support Assistant and similar programs crash all the time is because of these two drivers: DDDriver.sys and dddriver64Dcsa.sys.

You will want to make sure those drivers are removed as well. They're notorious for causing Stop 0xCA and Stop 0x18 bugchecks as already mentioned.

Regarding the advice to run Revo's 'post-uninstall clean-up', I'm pretty sure I did this, if by the 'post-uninstall clean-up' it is meant the process shown in the below three pictures (only Registries apply to the example app I'm using in the pictures, but I remember for the "Dell SupportAssist" app a second list was also shown for directories).

I was able to delete the remaining "Dell Client Management Service" Service in "services.msc" through the default method for deleting Services in "services.msc".

_william said:

(the link in that user's comment itself is tagged as "SA Uninstall/Reinstall");

Click to expand...

Won't let me edit the OP so: the link was not actually tagged as this, it was tagged as "Dell SupportAssist Not Installing".

@x BlueRobot Thanks. Could you help with removing those drivers? How would I search for them in Device Manager, for example?

As an alternative to Revo, you can use Ccleaner like this: 1. run the normal uninstaller. 2. in Ccleaner run the registry cleaner (remember to back up before implementing). 3. reboot and run Ccleaner registry cleaner again. This worked for me.
You can download the free version of Ccleaner here: Download

_william said:

@x BlueRobot Thanks. Could you help with removing those drivers? How would I search for them in Device Manager, for example?

Click to expand...

The easiest way is to do a FRST registry search:

FRST Registry Search
1. Please download Farbar Recovery Scan Tool and save it to your Desktop.
Note: You need to run the 64-bit Version so please ensure you download that one.
2. Run FRST64 by Right-Clicking on the file and choosing Run as administrator.
3. Copy and paste DDDriver; dddriver64Dcsa into the Search box and click the Search Registry button.
4. When the scan is complete a notepad window will open with the results. Please attach this to your next reply. It is saved on your desktop named SearchReg.txt.

I've seen a lot of problems with older versions of Support Assist on the Dell support forums. Newer versions seem to be less of a problem, even with BIOS updates.

The POST (Power On Self Test) and Dell diagnostics are tied to SA. Think twice before uninstalling.

@x BlueRobot
The "DDDriver" search returned this:

cFarbar Recovery Scan Tool (x64) Version: 22.03.2024
Ran by william (23-03-2024 03:29:53)
Running from C:\Users\william\Downloads
Boot Mode: Normal

================== Search Registry: "DDDriver" ===========

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ASR]
"OfflineDriverInjectionExtension"="drvstore.dll,DriverStoreOfflineAddDriverPackageW"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ASR]
"OfflineDriverInjectionExtension"="drvstore.dll,DriverStoreOfflineAddDriverPackageW"

====== End of Search ======

Whereas the other one returned this:

Farbar Recovery Scan Tool (x64) Version: 22.03.2024
Ran by william (23-03-2024 03:27:14)
Running from C:\Users\william\Downloads
Boot Mode: Normal

================== Search Registry: "dddriver64Dcsa" ===========


====== End of Search ======

_william said:

The "DDDriver" search returned this:

Click to expand...

Okay that's fine, I would suggest loading your DRIVERS hive and then doing the same registry search as before to double check: