Which Dell crapware can I uninstall?

TraderGary · Oct 5, 2025

Josey Wales said:
Yes you better do that:

View attachment 147839

When you tap the information icon under Download, does it tell you why the BIOS update is Optional?

Josey Wales · Oct 5, 2025

TraderGary said:
When you tap the information icon under Download, does it tell you why the BIOS update is Optional?

Yes for a known security issue. I did install it. OH why No.

cheaterslick · Oct 5, 2025

glasskuter said:
Everyone screams IT's BLOAT, IT'S CRAP. The way I see it, if something is useful, makes my life easier, doesn't make a mistake by giving me something that's not for my device, and hasn't failed me once, it's neither. It's an asset. Running as demand only it doesn't aggravate me or use system resources. I control it with its process. It's less than 13 mb.
But then I'm not one to hobble Windows functions either as so many do.

Ok, ok lol...

So I take it you use both, correct?

glasskuter said:
So to each his own. I do me and you do you.

No problem. Everybody does things differently. I respect that.

glasskuter said:
That is not true. In big bold letters "Identify your product". Enter service tag. Search.
On the next page, In blue, select "find specific drivers"

Drivers & Downloads | Dell US

Well that wasn't the page I wound up at. It was this one, instead...

pseymour · Oct 5, 2025

Dell doesn’t say required for firmware updates that I recall. It’s usually Optional or Critical. That update in the screen shot is a low-risk issue with OpenSSL in the AMI firmwares.

Josey Wales · Oct 5, 2025

TraderGary said:
When you tap the information icon under Download, does it tell you why the BIOS update is Optional?

cheaterslick · Oct 5, 2025

pseymour said:
Dell doesn’t say required for firmware updates that I recall. It’s usually Optional or Critical. That update in the screen shot is a low-risk issue with OpenSSL in the AMI firmwares.

I would think a BIOS update would be labeled as "critical", no? -

Josey Wales · Oct 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
I would think a BIOS update would be labeled as "critical", no?

MSI does ASUS does

pseymour · Oct 5, 2025

cheaterslick said:
I would think a BIOS update would be labeled as "critical", no? -

Depends on what it’s fixing. If it’s something that requires physical access to the machine, and the machine is in your house, not super important. But if it’s exploitable over the network, and you’re somewhere decently open, like a college, then that’s quite the sticky wicket.

snerd · Oct 5, 2025

Every new system I buy gets a format and clean install, very first thing. Old habits are hard to break!

DJNelson · Oct 5, 2025

pseymour said:
Depends on what it’s fixing. If it’s
something that requires physical access to the machine, and the machine is in your house, not super important. But if it’s exploitable over the network, and you’re somewhere decently open, like a college, then that’s quite the sticky wicket.

A good example: Dell currently "recommends" a BIOS update that changes secure boot keys and enables 6GHz WiFi in Kazakhstan for my system. Since I already manually updated my secure boot keys and have no plans to travel to Kazakhstan any point before I die, I think it's safe to disagree with this recommendation..

TraderGary · Oct 5, 2025

pseymour said:
Dell doesn’t say required for firmware updates that I recall. It’s usually Optional or Critical. That update in the screen shot is a low-risk issue with OpenSSL in the AMI firmwares.

I was wrong when I said, "required update". I should have said "critical update".

Mitch · Oct 5, 2025

I have a couple of Dell pcs under warranty. I keep Supportassist and Dell Update installed in case we need Tech Support. I check Dell Update for any driver updates and use Supportassist to install them. I found to my cost that new drivers when they appear on the Dell website may be pulled later if they are reported as problematic as can happen.
By the time they appear on Dell Update or Supportassist, which can be a few weeks later, they can usually be relied upon.
The main problem is updating DUpdate and Supportassist themselves which is not always without problems. Also, if you don't install BIOS updates yourself, either using Supportassist or not, then Windows Update will, which can be a bigger problem.

Josey Wales · Oct 5, 2025

TraderGary said:
I was wrong when I said, "required update". I should have said "critical update".

I would think an update to the BIOS should be critical.

cheaterslick · Oct 6, 2025

Different users have different needs. I get that.

For the last 25 years or so, I've always removed unnecessary apps and programs from my machine. If it's something I don't use, I generally delete it. And if I happen to make a mistake on that, I can always reinstall it.

That's how I've been approaching it. With Dell crapware (or any other OEM's crapware) along with MS's apps (from their app store) all pre-bloated on there, I use Revo to take care of it.

For the time being, I'll probably use things like SupportAssist or Dell's Command Update, but do I really need both?

Eventually as the machine gets older, those updates are going to get less and less so I don't feel the need to keep using them all the time

pseymour · Oct 6, 2025

We don't use SupportAssist, but I would say if it supplies updates like Command | Update does, then you can just use SA. Maybe set DCU not to do updates automatically, and run it periodically to see if it finds anything SA did not update. If DCU never does anything useful because SA is handling it, then you know you can ditch DCU. In the meantime though, you've set DCU not to do anything automatically, so it's not hurting anything or taking up resources.

Mitch · Oct 6, 2025

I find that if you just want to run a quick check for driver updates, Dell Update is quicker ( even if it's unsupported since 12/24) - having said that it's been updated since then. If you don't need the Optimise Network, / File Cleanup and Hardware Scanner then Dell Update is OK. The other thing to keep in mind is Dell Remediation, part of Supportassist. The Dell OS Recovery Tools application is frequently updated even on our 8 year old Dell. Remediation is shown as an installed program in Control Panel.

Which Dell crapware can I uninstall?

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