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Comment by tssva | Hacker News Reader

The author chose to download the software from the OEM and the software can be uninstalled.

> The author chose to download the software from the OEM and the software can be uninstalled.

I take issue with that. Apx. one year ago it was using excessive CPU on my Dell. I tried to uninstall, but the uninstaller crashed.

I turned to dell.com and then google. Turned out that throusands of people had the same problem, but no solution from Dell.

This is a sorry PoS application. In my experience, OEMs like Dell, HP create horrible software and drivers.

https://www.google.com/search?q=can%27t+uninstall+dell+suppo...

The blog post isn't about your experience, it's about the blog post author's experience.

Do try to stay on target when communicating with people. It is impolite to suddenly change a topic of discussion to yourself.

Dell SupportAssistant was preinstalled on my machine. It was the easiest way to find Dell's customized driver updates since they are difficult to find (which of the many network drivers does my machine need?). It's sad that it has problems, but it's supposed to make maintenance easier. HP has something similar.

You only have that issue if you search by the model of your PC. For Dell, search by the service tag (short string of letters and numbers) and you will get the drivers for only the hardware that PC shipped with. For HP enter the serial number.

It may come preinstalled but in this case the author wiped the computer, reinstalled Windows and then voluntarily installed the software while visiting the Dell support site checking for updated drivers. It is also able to be uninstalled which the original comment suggested it could not be.

Because the author was doing research? Come on.

According to the article the author wasn't doing research when first downloading and installing the application.

Not withstanding the vulnerability outlined by the article, the concept and utility has merit. For vast amount of users, sorting out chipset drivers is a hard problem.

Dell SupportAssist comes pre-installed on most new Dell machines. The only reason it wasn't installed on my machine is because the drive I used was not prepared by Dell. Your average Dell user will have SupportAssist installed though you are right that it can be uninstalled.

"The agent wasn’t installed on my computer because it was a fresh Windows installation, but I decided to install it to investigate further."

My impression was that a normal user wouldn't know not to take the offer, but fair point.

>The author chose to download the software from the OEM

Is a user expecting to be able to trust their manufacturer an unreasonable?

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