System Utility: Dell System Software (v7.0.3, A03): A pointless utility?

This "pointless" utility as you call it varies from model to model.

It is not a "utility". It is a driver.

You'll know it is not there because your other drivers won't work or even install.

Dell is Dell and Lenovo is Lenovo. Different companies do things differently. If you had wanted the familiarity of Thinkpads then you should have stuck to buying them.

Thanks for adding a little to the published information on this utility/driver/tool.

I referred to it as a utility as that is what Dell categorize it as on the Drivers & download page for my machine. I used the term "pointless" as Dell haven't (to my knowledge) deemed it worthwhile to provide any user documentation or reference articles on their website.

I totally agree that different companies do things differently, I was illustrating my expectations/thoughts based on the thumbnail documentation Dell provide, I could have used the utility Acer provide on their netbooks as my example (however it isn't in front of me, so I can't confirm the correctness of my recollections).

However, it would be nice to get a URL to somewhere on the Dell website that properly documents this essential utility/driver/tool...

R.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&docid=DSN_1A0C0937D62A8739E0401E0A55174744&isLegacy=true

RolB6,

The Dell Desktop/Notebook System Utility, is system specific.

It needs installed first, then the chipset drivers.

The Dell Desktop/Notebook System Utility knows what is attached to the specific computer. It know the usb posts, wireless adapters, webcams, etc..., and all the rest of the items that could be attached to this system. It is spread throughout the system.

Without installing the Dell Desktop/Notebook System utility and the chipset drivers first, the rest of the drivers fail to install. The most notable is the wireless adapter.

How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order

Rick

It's a terminology problem.  Dell's description does leave something to be desired.   The "system software" patches/updates ONLY apply to the original installation of the operating system, basically just to add any support for Dell's hardware not included in the "plain vanilla" OS.  It's not an update tool. .

At least on past models,  when it's installed the folder includes a small .xls chart showing what patches are applied.  However, on a new system there likely is no separate folder for it - it's already integrated at the factory on the original install.

The closest thing to what you're looking for is called Dell Support Center (link below).  However, it may not support your particular system -  check your drivers and downloads page under Applications to see if its listed.  It's probably considerably more bloated than the utilities you're used to, however - many users here find it more trouble than it's worth, and if it behaves badly it's a total pain to sort it out, since Dell doesn't provide much meaningful troubleshooting support for it.  Lots of people have asked for a much simpler tool to do ONLY update checks, but AFAIK only a few models have that option - you would see a "Scan for Updates" icon directly on the downloads page.

www.dell.com/.../dsc_home

Thanks for the responses.

On the Vostro 3555, Dell do bundle "Dell Support Centre" (which being powered by PC-Doctor, has similarities to Lenovo's ThinkVantage Toolbox). This tool probably confused me as I clicked on the "Get Drivers & Downloads" button and was taken directly to the Drivers & Downloads for Vostro 3555 rather than to a software updater tailored to my specific system.

It was this that got me looking down the list of downloads, trying to determine which, if any, were relevant to my specific system configuration.

Obviously, I found the article How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order, which given it was written in 2006 required some interpretation to map it both to the current Drivers & Download categories and to an AMD-based machine. Item 1, the DSS/NSS obviously got my attention, but how do I know if it is installed and whether the version I'm running is the latest bug fixed build for my machine build?

[Aside: I think that Dell could learn from Lenovo here and include in their instructions, details of how to determine which version of xyz your system is currently running (on the Thinkpad this at times does mean looking at the version number of a specific driver file rather than a simple Help -> About lookup).]

From the Dell description and various comments on the community forums it seems that DSS/NSS is providing a function similar to Lenovo's System Update; but without any means of user control or feedback, which can (and will in my deployment) cause problems.

Once my systems have been fully configured they will be locked down with one of  Deep Freeze or Clean Slate (still evaluating). The effect of these applications will be to freeze the system state at time of lockdown; in simple terms, all changes made after system lockdown will be discarded when either the user logs off or the system is rebooted. Hence auto-update tools are (in this specific instance) a total waste of bandwidth and will impact user experience.

[Aside: Having gone through the list of updates (installs on a test machine - Restore from the recovery partition works really well), I have determined that, ignoring DSS, I only need two updates, namely: "Dell Backup and Recovery Manager" and "Dell Support Center", which isn't listed on the Drivers & Downloads  page...]

R

Don't get offended, but I feel this is the most useless reply to the question. A person asked for advice, not for lecture