XPS 8930 SupportAssist

Hi Tedco:

Where can other users find / download SupportAssistLauncher?

Hi Imacri,It is available from https://www.dell.com/support/contents/en-au/article/product-support/self-support-knowledgebase/software-and-downloads/supportassist 

Hi Tedco:

Thanks for the clarification.  I didn't realize the Dell SupportAssistLauncher you suggested was the same SupportAssistInstaller.exe installer recommended in DELL-Chris M's instructions at SA Uninstall / Reinstall.

Hi Imacri,

Nor was I - when I had to do a Factory Reset of my XPS8930, I had all sorts of problem trying to get SupportAssist to update and from memory was advised to download SupportAssistLauncher.

I have downloaded both programs (SupportAssistLauncher and SupportAssistLauncher) and looking at their properties, apart from one being 615kb and the other 624kb, they have identical Original FileName as 7zS.sfx.exe. 

Does not really make sense to me, but SupportAssist is working and that's the main thing.

---

@Tedco wrote:

... I have downloaded both programs (SupportAssistLauncher and SupportAssistLauncher) and looking at their properties, apart from one being 615kb and the other 624kb, they have identical Original FileName as 7zS.sfx.exe....

---

Hi Tedco:

I'm not exactly sure what you did, but I use a file compression utility called 7-Zip that can extract (unzip) .zip files and other compressed files like .exe self-extracting installers. One of the files in my C:\Program Files\7-Zip folder is called 7z.sfx, and when I submit that file to VirusTotal.com for analysis the report <here> shows that one of the alternate names for this file is 7z.sfx.exe.

If I download the compressed SupportAssistInstaller.exe file from the SupportAssist for Home PCs page at https://www.dell.com/support/contents/en-ca/article/product-support/self-support-knowledgebase/software-and-downloads/supportassist and save it in a subfolder I created in my Downloads folder at C:\Users\<myusername>\Downloads\Test this compressed self-extracting installer (which contains all the necessary files to install SupportAssist) is ~ 690 KB.

If I extract the contents of that compressed file with 7-Zip into another folder I created at C:\Users\<myusername>\Downloads\Test\Unpacked Files I can see the compressed .exe file contains the smaller 652 KB SupportAssistInstaller.exe executable along with all the necessary files required to install SupportAssist.

I'm not certain, but I'm guessing if you had uninstalled the Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin for Dell, downloaded the 690 KB self-extracting installer SupportAssistInstaller.exe from the SupportAssist for Home PCs page at https://www.dell.com/support/contents/en-ca/article/product-support/self-support-knowledgebase/software-and-downloads/supportassist to your desktop, and then double-clicked that SupportAssistInstaller.exe file it would have successfully installed SupportAssist on your computer.

I believe @Dell-BradL was the Dell employee who marked your 28-Mar-2022 post <here> as the solution for this thread so perhaps they could provide further insight into the difference between SupportAssistInstaller and SupportAssistLauncher.
-----------
64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1586 * Firefox v98.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2202.4-1.1.19000.8 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.7.186-1.0.1645 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.4.18 * Dell Update for Windows 10 Universal v4.5.0 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.6635
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

I'm not sure where the 7z.sfx.exe file you are referring to.

From properties in the files SupportAssistInstaller.exe and SupportAssistLauncher.exe the Original FIlename is listed as 7zS.sfx.exe

After running the SupportAssistLauncher.exe I had no problems updating Dell's Support Applications.

Only thing I found was the file DCFWinService was running constantly with high cpu usage and slowing my computer down.

I fixed that by launching Services.msc and change Dell SupportAssistRemediation to Manual.

Hope this makes sense.

---

@Tedco wrote:

... From properties in the files SupportAssistInstaller.exe and SupportAssistLauncher.exe the Original FIlename is listed as 7zS.sfx.exe

After running the SupportAssistLauncher.exe I had no problems updating Dell's Support Applications....

---

Hi Tedco:

Sorry, I just realized what you meant by "original file name".

I looked at the Details tab of the SupportAssistInstaller.exe file I downloaded from the SupportAssist for Home PCs download page and can see that the original file name is 7zS.sfx.exe. When I upload the current SupportAssistInstaller.exe to VirusTotal.com the analysis report <here> also notes that 7zS.sfx.exe is an alternate name for SupportAssistInstaller.exe. I have no idea why the original file name is 7zS.sfx.exe unless Dell is using a 7-Zip executable to pack files inside the SupportAssistInstaller.exe and SupportAssistLauncher.exe wrappers.

However, I still don't understand how SupportAssistLauncher.exe differs from SupportAssistInstaller.exe, how it got downloaded to your computer, or what the purpose of SupportAssistLauncher.exe is. I only want to know because there are several users currently having problems re-installing SupportAssist on their Dell XPS computers (especially those with Win 11 OSs) and I'm wondering if there's a glitch in the latest SupportAssistInstaller.exe file downloaded from the SupportAssist for Home PCs download page that prevents it from running correctly on XPS and/or Win 11 computers. I've never seen a file called SupportAssistLauncher.exe on my Insipron laptop so perhaps this file is specifically meant for higher-end Dell machines like the XPS series of computers.

Hopefully @Dell-BradL or someone else from Dell will be able to provide clarification.
-----------
64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1586 * Firefox v98.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2202.4-1.1.19000.8 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.7.186-1.0.1645 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.4.18 * Dell Update for Windows 10 Universal v4.5.0 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.6635
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

Hello, I see you are looking for technical assistance. If you need our help, you can start a private message with us and we will be happy to assist you.

I'm not sure either, as to why there are two files nearly identically. I downloaded them as I had all sorts of problem with my XPS 8930 after a factory reset.

Dell Support, from memory, directed me to download and run which fixed the problem.