UNSOLVED
Support assist Run as Admin
Having the same issue as reported in several other threads such as: https://www.dell.com/community/SupportAssist-for-PCs/SupportAssist-run-as-admin/m-p/7187490 We as well try to follow best practice and don't allow regular users admin permissions. This causes a problem with Support Assist because trying to run as a regular user errors out and won't install or update new drivers etc. if available.
The solution in the linked thread (set the support assist service to run/log on as an admin user) appears to work to an extent. It will run and update drivers, etc. EXCEPT for support assist itself. If there is an update for support assist, it alerts you and if you click "yes" to run the update, support assist just closes out and nothing else happens.
1) is there a better or more proper way to set support assist to install drivers and other updates without changing the service logon user?
2) if changing the service logon user is still the best solution, is there another service that needs the same change to allow the support assist update process to run when prompted?
I was so happy to come across this thread! Finally, someone having the e
So frustrating as usual with Dell and Windows....Crickets...I still cannot get SA to run for our users without remote control and running as admin. Trying to run as a log-on user that is an admin doesn't seem to work anymore either. It just sits at the loading screen and complains "this is taking longer than usual".
I was able to get it to work some of the time by changing the service run as user to a domain administrator. It’s finicky tho and sometimes SA will open and just sit there but sometimes it will open and I can check for updates and install them if there are any.
just go to services, right click Dell Support assist Agent, and under properties > run as choose a user. Enter full domain username (e.g example\domainBoss) and password then restart the service. Try to open SA and see if it works.
It is industry standard best security practice for business computers to not be used by people with administrative privileges. This is why Microsoft introduced user rights escalation and the UAC subsystems in Windows almost two decades ago.
Dell are advertising and selling these systems as business computers. If Dell is designing their management software in a way that forces its customers to compromise their security, to be able to run it, then Dell are being negligent in their duty of care.
If systems are compromised because they've had to give their users admin rights, just so the systems can be maintained by Dell's own management software, then a class action, against Dell, should not be beyond the realms of possibility.
(edited)
Thank goodness our management have listened to me and moved away from Dell their support, is atrocious - they returned a repaired laptop to a random address at another part of the country (which we never got back) and had months of fighting with them to get a replacement after the fact. This support assist with local admin rights - what administrator would give users local admin rights - I hope HP will be better, though I must admit on holding my breath.
Dudes, just click the link in the opening statement...you will find a viable solution. I've tested this and it works well for my situation:
Came across this post while looking into this issue for our own deployment. The way I managed to work around was to run the service as an admin, which in turn runs the app as that admin. This is mentioned in another community post, but since this is unanswered and other people might end up on this page in the future, here's how to work around it and run the App as admin:
- Type Services in the start menu
- Right click on 'Services' and run as administrator
- Type in the administrator password as needed
- Find and double-click the service "Dell SupportAssist"
- Go to the Log On tab and select the Run as thing and add your admin account, with user / pass
- You can stop and then (re)start the dell support service to make it effective real time
- Next time you run the SupportAssist app, it will use the permissions from step 5 and will allow you to install drivers without any UAC prompt, on the normal user account.
We should not have to be doing "work arounds" to compensate for poor product design/decisions by Dell. Also, the "work around" does not work around all problems with the product's poor design. As the OP clearly states, you cannot update the product properly even with the work around.
They are clearly not keeping up with industry standard best practices for security in their product being marketed and sold to businesses.
jalopeno
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Posted March 16th, 2023 10:00
Still cannot find the service to run as admin that would allow SAC updater to run. The only option I've been able to get to work is to manually go the the website and download Support Assist for home and run the installer. Otherwise, if I get notified SAC has an update, clicking "YES" just closes the application and nothing happens.