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Windows refresh question
A while back, my PC suddenly began having trouble booting, possibly due to a power outage over night (though I have APC unit) or a glitch during a Windows update. In any case, the boot order got switched, but even after correcting that, booting has remained extremely slow, by which I mean on the order of five minutes with an SSD, during which time black screen prevails, and sometimes I have to shutdown and unplug it for a while to get it to boot to Windows log in screen. I very rarely power it off.
Months earlier Support Assist (SA) had stopped working -- with no remedy, including reinstall, working -- and after this more recent episode, my free Waves audio panel stopped functioning as well.
The folks at Geek Squad, after finding all the hardware fine, recommended a Windows 10 (21H2) reinstall after a drive format. Although I know that I can reinstall SA, I'm concerned that other Dell diagnostic tools or other Dell software will be gone. Since my service has expired, perhaps I should not be worried, but I thought I'd ask anyway. It's a great machine and I want to keep it going a long time.
Thank you.
filbert
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November 30th, 2022 10:00
You don't really need all those Dell applications. If you want them, you can download them from Dell and install them.
SupportAssist automatically installs updates including BIOS updates. Those automatic BIOS updates can cause problems, as many forum posts indicate. I would prefer not to have such updates installed without my approval.
Dell Update can be useful as a way to show you what update are available, but you can choose what to install.
You may want Waves MaaxAudio, as it provides various audio functions. On some Dell models, it provides the primary jack plug insertion detection, so it's important if you ever connect headphones, microphone.
You can always go to the Dell Drivers & Downloads page for your model, to see what's available to download.
Personally, I like clean installs of Windows, so I'd agree with Geek Squad. At this point though, you should clean install Windows 10 22H2, rather than the older 21H2.
Backup all your documents to an external drive or cloud service before performing a clean install.