Windows 8

[tomx2]

Not sure if this post belongs in Windows 8 forum. Moderator, please move where applicable.

Hi.

I just purchase a Dell XPS 13 I5 processor win 8.1. I have a executable in task manager DfSSvc.exe (Dell.DFS.Agent.WinService) that appears to show a very high memory allocation in Task Manager 89,388K.

Can someone explain what this is used for?

Is this memory to high for this object?

Is there a fix to reduce this obj memory?

Can I end this task?

Thanks.

TC.

[JP Dillon]

McAfee firewall frequently pops up a block of various Dell Foundation Services calls for several different Dell DLL files. If these are legitimate executable files, you'd think a company the size of Dell would be able to register their programs with the AV/FW vendors.

Based on these comments by "WhoCares234" and others, and a complete lack of support when I try to contact Dell by phone, I am electing to uninstall all the Dell programs as they don't appear to serve any useful purpose.

I spent over three grand for a high-end Dell computer, based in part on my experience in the corporate and academic environments, but their lack of software support is definitely a turn-off and leaves me leaning towards alternate vendors in the future.

[decker12]

I've had a similar lack of support regarding Dell's Data Protection suite of programs. It's some pretty hardcore stuff - drive encryption, fingerprint scanning, all of it tied into pre-boot authentication and the UEFI BIOS features. Screw it up and you can quite literally lock your entire drive forever.

Absolutely none of it is documented sufficiently.  There's no quick start guide. There's no evaluation guide. There's no support for it. It comes pre-installed on every Dell Latitude we buy and I feel like it should come with a pretty solid 200 page manual on how to implement it but instead it comes with nothing.

It doesn't work very well either and drives my users insane. ControlVault, Trusted Platform Module, OPAL2, SED, Dell Data Protect Encryption and DDP Security Tools and DDP Access - all different aspects of this and some require each other, some don't, and some are depreciated but mostly all of them can still be downloaded from the drivers pages. It's a mess.

When you have a problem. typing the problems into Google, nothing comes up. I have had to reinstall and reformat computers 20+ times in an effort to figure it out, because there are several can't-uninstall points during the process. I have a new E7450 that I used as a test bed to just try every possible step by step combination to get a fresh Windows 7 x64 machine working with the Dell security suite of tools and I still couldn't get it working.

Anyway, in my experience, Dell Foundation Services and Dell Command Update aren't things you need to keep installed.

[StevenBracamont]

Seems that this program made our ESRI GPS software connection go haywire, not sure why but I uninstalled it after noticing it had been installed and causing issues with ESRI license manager Client connections.

[pattern math]

DFS.agent.winservice

runs constantly on my new DELL LAPTOP

eating up CPU and slowing everything on my new computer

I am disappointed my more powerful computer runs slower than my old much less powerful LENOVO

[pattern math]

dfs.agent.winservice

slows my new laptop

with windows 10

[Antony Mathews]

Thanks for this question, if not exact answer, resolved my issue. I went into services and changed the automatic mode to manual and stopped the DFS. It didn't help me and I never thought this would be the issue which prevented me from using Dell hardware with 8GB RAM to properly use some of my memory and CPU intensive applications.

DFS used to consume >85% CPU. This also used to overheat the laptop. Finally I sat down to investigate and clear all junk. That's when I came across this topic, and arrived at this simple solution. Change to manual and stop. Start it if you feel it's useful. I didn't remove the program since I's not very sure if it might be useful as per Dell's terms and conditions.

One thing is sure, if this DFS keeps performing this way eating up >85% CPU, I'll switch brands. Incidentally I've been loyal to Dell, with this being my 2nd personal machine. But that might be past.

[D Bender · Accepted solution]

I have a i7-6820HK processor and this "service" was eating up 95%+ of it! Just Ctrl+Alt+Del, go to Services and switch to Disable and Stop the service. Fixed my problem for good on my Alienware 15 R2; back down to normal temps and load now.

[rdcoole]

How do I change this to manual so I can stop it?

[tongs]

It uses 46% CPU on my 9550, 512SSD, 16Go RAM ... and I think it ate my battery in 2 hours in train ...(not a good surprise !)

[dlynsmith · Accepted solution]

I had this same issue with my 3 month old XPS 15 laptop. Just noticed it this week (Oct 15-20) with the fan running constantly, laptop getting hot, and 84 Whr battery draining in less than 3 hours.

DFS was using >50% CPU. Stopped the service, then Disabled it and system is now down to 1% CPU and fan has stopped.