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Michael Kane
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August 20th, 2026 14:19
Why is SupportAssist to bad?
I've been imaging/supporting Windows computers for many years from a variety of vendors. My practice has always been to wipe the disk and install a fresh Windows image, then for non-Microsoft computers install the vendor's application that updates drivers and things that Windows Update doesn't. Dell's SupportAssist is hands-down the worst such application. Painfully slow, often gets stuck, and I cringe when the "Windows OS repair and restore features are available to download" appears. It rarely works. I am often forced to give a computer to a user knowing that SupportAssist didn't finish and will start prompting them, or they will have problems.
I've used Lenovo's Commercial Vantage and HP's Support Assistant on numerous laptops in the last couple of years, rarely have any of the problems that Dell's SupportAssist has so frequently.
Why can't Dell make a better application?
(edited)
Michael Kane
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Posted August 20th, 2026 20:31
@garioch7 Thanks for the response. We usually replace laptops when the warranty expires. It's the setup that bothers me the most. With new laptops I've always deleted the partitions before installing Windows to get rid of all the vendor "stuff". Last I checked there were 1 or 11 apps installed on a new Dell business laptop. The other vendors do that as well, but their support apps aren't as painful. But there is value with having SupportAssist installed, more than a few times having t update the Realtek audio driver fixed problems. I just wonder why Dell can't do better.
DELL-Daniel V
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Posted August 21st, 2026 17:29
@Michael Kane While its not a solution, the business line of systems can install and use Dell Command Update. This is a light weight utility that only checks for driver updates. Non-Pro systems would be limited to just using SupportAssist as the regular Dell Update application has been retired. See the Command Suite here if you want to look into more enterprise applications. If using a custom install for Windows, then images can use our Command Deploy packs for relatively up to date drivers.
DELL-Daniel V
#IWork4Dell
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Michael Kane
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Posted August 24th, 2026 14:10
@DELL-Daniel V Thanks for the reply. The docs say that to install DCU you first have to install SupportAssist. So I'm not sure what doing that would gain?
DELL-Daniel V
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Posted August 24th, 2026 14:46
@Michael Kane DCU is its own standalone app and you can download it here.
DELL-Daniel V
#IWork4Dell
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Michael Kane
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Posted August 24th, 2026 17:59
@DELL-Daniel V Thanks for the link. I'll try out DCU. Gotta love the Dell docs, though, right? 🤦🏻♂️
garioch7
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318 Posts
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Posted August 20th, 2026 19:50
@Michael Kane ,
I, and many others, uninstall SupportAssist as soon as our warranties expire. Your experience is our experience.
SupportAssist has had ongoing issues for many years now. I even got rid of Dell Update. I go the Dell Home Support site for both of my Dell computers once a week, enter my Service Tags, and search for available updates that might be of interest to me, and install only those updates.
Save yourself some aggravation: once your warranty expires, use Revo to get rid of all of that non-functional Dell bloatware.
Just my personal opinion. I do not represent Dell in any way.
Have a great day.
Regards,
Phil