Dell SupportAssist vs Dell Update

I have 2 5759's for my wife and me and I am setting up 2 5770's for a couple of friends.

As best I can tell, going forward Support Assist will do what had been done by combinations of:

  - Support Assist Remediation

  - Support Assist

  - Dell Update

Support Assist Remediation I believe was installed by a package called Dell Foundation Services which I believe also installed all the Data Vault Services.

A year ago Dell changed Support Assist to displace Support Assist Remediation and Foundation Services the update failed to remove Support Assist Remediation.  That produces MSI Installer Event 1035 messages whenever these services run.  

The best way forward:

Remove Dell Support Assist, Dell Support Assist Remediation, and Dell Update.  Do a full shutdown (from a CMD:

shutdown /f /t 0 ) - not just the power button.

After the reboot, install Support Assist.  It is not clear that the new Dell Update is needed.  I have installed the latest Dell Update and it seems to do very little - notably it does not create a Dell Update Service as the old one did. Since it installed cleanly and left no debris, I have left it.  Don't forget to reset the credentials on the Support Assist service.

Your Windows Application Event log should be clean as far as MSI Installer 1035 events.  You may get a warning event from SupportAssist regarding an attempt to set something.  Does not seem to matter.  Support Assist seems to work ok.  My wife and I both have the same glitch that Support Assist reports our support as lapsed but the Dell website shows everything ok - Dell support is looking at it.

Personally, I find Support Assist useful though it is fragile.  It has never **bleep** up driver updates or BIOS updates.

Good luck

Thanks for this info. Per your feedback, I went ahead and uninstalled all things related to Dell Support Assist/Remediation/Update and went ahead and did a fresh install of just SA. Some things of note:

1) I purchased my laptop in November 2017. It came with all three of these programs preinstalled. I've worked with Dell Support multiple times and they've uninstalled and reinstalled the SA components a handful of times. They've never been consistent on their messaging about what these programs do, which versions are current, where they're supposed to install from, etc. It's incredibly frustrating, and I know I'm not the only one suffering trying to sort this out.

2) In the time I've had this computer, I've never once received an automatic notification from SA that there is an update. There have been multiple updates, but the only program that ever gave me an automatic update notice was the older version of Dell Update, which had the tray icon. That used to pop up and say "updates available" now and again, then I'd click it, stuff would install, and all would be well. That is the simplicity I want and have yet to see with SA. I can't possibly be doing it wrong because even after Dell Support set it up, it never gave me notifications, and has clearly missed them.

3) I have yet to actually install any updates via SA. Maybe I'm impatient, but even after it said it found some updates, it seemed to take forever to try and download/install them. Dell Update used to do it straight away. I don't know why SA seems to hang up. These are not large files. It should take seconds to download and there should be a progress bar. Instead, it seemingly just sits there not doing anything. Manual install goes exactly as you'd think it would, which is to say straight away it does its thing.

4) When I did run SA earlier today, it found "updates" that had already been made, while missing others (e.g., BIOS, which was actually two versions behind). Right now it's not showing any updates that need to be made, but I don't actually feel like I can trust it. Why is it missing updates that have been posted for days, if not weeks? Where is the notification even supposed to show up?

It is my understanding that programs like SA are supposed to streamline the update process and make troubleshooting easier for the lay person. I'm not usually in need of these kinds of programs, as I'm plenty capable of figuring out most issues myself, but it's nice to get a heads up that there are updates so I don't have to manually check all the time.

The fact that Dell can't seem to get a clear message out there about what is going on here, let alone get a pre-packaged software app to work correctly is annoying. If I have to manually scan and update anyway, I may as well go back to Dell Update, since it doesn't need to run all the time. No point in wasting any resources, no matter how few, if the program isn't going to do what it's supposed to do.

There's supposed to be a new version of SA coming any day now, which they say will address the non-admin user rights issue/pop-up, but they've said that before, too, and it still persists without the posted work around. My dad's new desktop had the same issue. I'm reasonably certain his computer probably isn't updating itself, either. I'll find out when I visit in a few days.

Is there anyone from Dell here that can clarify in an official capacity what these programs are and aren't supposed to do, and which we should/should not have installed to maintain current updates via notifications/automatic downloads?

EDIT: So randomly my wife's laptop just displayed a notice that an update was available from Dell Updates v3.0. This is weird, because I see nothing running in Task Manager, other than SA. The idea of this is welcome, because now it is functioning as v2.x did, but with no tray icon. This is especially weird because if I go to the taskbar settings, I can see "DellUpTray.exe" in the list of icons that can be toggled, but neither the "on" nor "off" positions will actually display an icon in the system tray. Likewise, I see no actual file called DellUpTray.exe on my PC.

Screenshot is attached. Notice "DellUpTray.exe" is set to on, but it shows nowhere in my tray. What gives here? I've uninstalled and reinstalled this a few times now, same issue.

Based on your comment, I re-installed Dell Update and within a day got a notice to install a driver that is not even listed for my 5759's service tag

although it is listed for generic 5759 systems (http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/inspiron-17-5759-laptop.html) which covers all variants of 5759's ever produced.

SupportAssist says I am fully up to date.

I contacted Dell support and had a very frustrating session with some guy who basically just wanted to close a ticket and get back to his nap.  Understandable given that they are 12 hours out synch with us.

His points:

  - don't install anything if you are not having problems (yet DELL tools and web site can state an update is recommended or urgent)

  - don't install anything that Support Assist does not recommend (so why have DU?)

  - keep DU because it installs drivers (so does SA including BIOS)

  - keep DU because it installs drivers that are generic whereas SA does drivers that are specific to my configuration (nonsense - there are dozens of generic drivers that are not applicable to my system so why would DU want to download them and install them)

  - don't install a driver if SA does not say you need it (apparently he does not read what he writes....)

  - etc... more of the same ...

DELL refuses to fix either SA or DU or resolve conflicts between the two or even to acknowledge that there are problems.

I happened to notice I was missing a driver that the web site indicated was urgent post Win10-1803. Neither SA nor DU picked it up.

When I first started buying Dell systems, I ignored the tools and checked the web site directly.  Then for a while DU was generally useful.  The SA came out and was ok.  Now both are questionable and buggy in many ways (installation conflicts, broken functionality (missing updates, incorrect wrt warranty status,...)) so I am going back to depending on checking the web site manually and using SA as a quick check in case it detects something I miss.  I am uninstalling DU - it seems to be dangerous.  At least SA will not install anything on its own as far I know.

Dell tech support is a shadow of what it was a few years ago.  I discovered an issue with a couple of 5770's I was setting up for non-technical friends.  Others had hit it as well and it seems to apply to all 5770's but it took over a month for Dell to even acknowledge there was an issue (20-30 system event messages per second when using wifi) and I was then told by a tech support supervisor that since wifi was working that DELL did not care about the problem - he was blunt - if the boot up diagnostics don't fail then he did not want to talk to me.  I contacted a product manager in the US I had met through these forums a few years ago and he took over the issue and it is now being pursued by component manufacturers (either qualcomm or rivet networks I suspect).  This guy is great but he should not have had to get involved.

Lenovo is looking increasingly appealing from a price perspective - no experience with their support - I had thinkpads in IBM days and tech supt was great.

Was in my Dell account today trying to figure out what the many different downloadable Dell software programs are for. FYI ... the web site page for 'Drivers & downloads' now has a new(?) resource at the bottom of the page for 'driver notifications' where you can create a 'subscription' to be emailed of updates available for any of your computers registered in your account.  Have no experience with it yet beyond registering but thought you might like to know/try it out (if you don't already). 

I myself was wondering on the difference between Dell Update, Dell Command-Update and Support Assist... which brought me here. 

quadriflax,

Below is the information you are requesting. 

Dell Update

Dell Command. | Update replaces DCSU and is a part of the Dell Client Command Suite. It provides a 2-click solution for getting all the latest drivers, firmware, and BIOS updates for your Latitude, Optiplex, and Precision systems.

Support Assist

For my notes, click my username and send me the pc service tag number via private message.

Same issue here I keep getting notices that Dell has two updates I click ok to install and nothing happens a day or so later I get the same notices. As Per online downloads I'm up to date on everything??

I use the specific "DELL UPDATE," and have no problems.   I would trust this more than anything else, IMO. 

I've read through the entire thread posted by quadriflax and I can relate to all of these same issues. I was becoming so confused as the original poster revealed that I contacted Dell support to express my deep frustration along with the many questions I needed answers to involving SA and Dell Update.

The tech spent an exhausting 4 hours uninstalling and re-installing support assist as well as the standalone product Dell update. This re-installation occurred just a few weeks (I'm estimating) prior to when quadriflax posted the original thread "Dell Support Assist vs Dell Update"on July 2, 2018.

I was told Dell had just released a 'new' version of Support Assist that hadn't been released or made available to Dell customers at that time. Upon the successful installation of the new version of SA by the Dell tech support, I haven't experienced the conflicts between SA and Dell Update that I once did back in the late spring of 2018.

However, the reason for posting this reply is because I wanted to share some particulars that the new version of Support Assist did not and still has has addressed in subsequent updated versions of SA  :

1). The ongoing problem with the latest version of SA is that once SA is opened and a notification of a new update is available, it will install 'urgent' updates (such as a BIOS update), however SA will fail in any attempt to install 'recommended' updates from SA (for example, Intel Rapid Storage Technology). The failed attempt by SA requires the 'recommended' updates to be installed manually on the Dell Support website. But once the update is successfully installed manually, the alert notification in SA for those updates that were just manually installed won't "clear" from SA. 

2) SA will not notify the user on every urgent update that is available. I am not saying this is the case all of the time. But if the user periodically checks in SA to 'Get Driver's and Downloads' and SA does not provide available urgent updates to download at that time, the user can sometimes find urgent updates on the Dell's support website that are actually available to download, by entering their service tag and checking the box that states "show urgent downloads only". It appears to be that the same SA buggy problem recognized by quadriflax in the July 2018 post involving urgent updates still exists. I've since received updates to the SA re-installed package which Dell tech support manually installed back in the late Spring of 2018. I'm currently running the SA version of 3.0.2.48 installed on 11/6/2018.

3.) The last issue I want to mention is (and it's not certain if there is any correlation with SA) that my notification tray will at times show a notification for an available update for a driver if I hover over that icon, which SA does not recognize as an available update for a driver.

I recall Dell tech support telling me after re-installing SA that Dell Update will not try to provide notifications to updates nor offer updates to download drivers even though the standalone program is still installed on my XPS 8930, Special Edition. For all intents of purposes, It's basically idle. Since it doesn't cause conflicts with SA available updates any longer that previously led to the frustration, I don't even know Dell Update is there.  

It would be greatly appreciated if you were to respond to the issues on SA that I mentioned because it's never been made clear on whether either 'Urgent' updates or 'Recommended' updates for drivers should be manually downloaded on the Dell Support site when entering the Dell tag, or whether to wait to install only those drivers that SA makes available. Most of the tech support persons I've talked to (except one person), all have chanted the same mantra: "Do not download any driver updates that are not made available through SA.

Thanks in advance

One thing I forgot to mention, I don't touch any BIOS updates.  Long story short.  Not even on my 15 ACER and ASUS.

Dell Command Update 3.0 seems to function , very well for me I just run it every now and them. Not Sure I would trust any windows program to update my BIOS, however. I have just seen too many bricked notebooks over the years using windows based BIOS updaters.

fyi, I was informed by high-up Dell Tech Support Manager that Windows 10 automatic updates are now automatically updating *DRIVERS* without asking you, and really there's nothing Dell can do about this.  I've noticed it's true, Windows update now updates everything from your display drivers, SATA drivers, etc.  Scary stuff yes; that used to be optionally something you'd do manually if you wanted (and it was usually not the right way to go, you wanted to download the full pkg from the website or use the OEM tool aka Dell SupportAssist), it is now done for you without asking you. 

This overlaps the functionality of the Dell update tools, now you'll find the Windows updates tend to up things on you pretty quickly, usually before Dell SupportAssist gets to it.  So I'm deducing that the various OEM vendors' update tools will slowly become defunct because good'ol Microsoft is managing (forcing) everything on you (whether you like/want it or not).  But don't worry it's all for your (their) own good.  That way if your system crashes, Microsoft can see it's happening to the last 1000 users that got updated and they can fix it in the next release a few weeks later.  In the meantime you'll just have to wait, you don't need your computer that much right?

Oh and btw, while it lasts, you can:

Prevent these automatic driver updates: (in 1803 anyway)

Control Panel, System, Advanced System Settings, Hardware tab, Device Installation Settings, "Do you want to automatically download manufacturers' apps and custom icons available for your devices?"  Yes (recommended), No (your device might not work as expected)  --(i.e. it might explode because you didn't immediately download the latest drivers ;)

Yes windows 10 has always install native drivers over your proprietary drivers a special problem for us notebook users.

If you have pro you can prevent driver updates using gpedit

without pro you have to do it in the registry 

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/48277-enable-disable-driver-updates-windows-update-windows-10-a.html 

And to the Original post,  I don't use either, I use "Dell Command Update Ver 3" You run it manually and it just works. I learned this after several attempts with Support to solve the problem of my trackpad not turning off when my mouse was present. The last tech had me download DCU 3.0, when I ran it, it showed me that I needed an Intel IO driver update once installed problem solved. Neither Dell update or SupportAssist could figure that out and several Techs could not figure this out.