New laptop -- issues (defender and stalls)

compiler said:

Also, what is WAVESMaxxAudioService?

Mel

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Waves MaxxAudio application is an audio suite that apparently enhances the audio performance of the system (it comes in Dell PCs I guess). you can disable it from starting within Windows from the task manager. It is safe to do so and if you notice any unwanted effects in the sound of your pc, you can just re enable it easily.

Waves MaxxAudio is part of a software package that optimizes audio performance

You indicated you did not update all your drivers. It's my opinion it's in your best interest to do so. Many were marked urgent. Others are security updates.

Glass:
Thanks for the advice. When I put in my service tag, only 7 came up. The only urgent one was the wi-fi one and in retrospect it certainly was. Dell advised only doing that one plus the BIOS Firmware one. I am an old guy (will be 76 in 2 months). I know enough to be dangerous, I guess. I actually subscribed to the adage of don't upgrade drivers/bios, sans problems. I finally ran into problems! Is that adage now outdated?

I have to backtrack on one solution. The right click defender scan issue remains. It works when I do it (it should be mentioned that a reboot is necessary) but hours later, it reverts. Any ideas? I suspect it might pertain to permissions?

Mel

compiler said:

Glass:
Thanks for the advice. When I put in my service tag, only 7 came up. The only urgent one was the wi-fi one and in retrospect it certainly was. Dell advised only doing that one plus the BIOS Firmware one. I am an old guy (will be 76 in 2 months). I know enough to be dangerous, I guess. I actually subscribed to the adage of don't upgrade drivers/bios, sans problems. I finally ran into problems! Is that adage now outdated?

I have to backtrack on one solution. The right click defender scan issue remains. It works when I do it (it should be mentioned that a reboot is necessary) but hours later, it reverts. Any ideas? I suspect it might pertain to permissions?

Mel

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Make sure you unisntall Dell SupportAssist. It keeps running in the background trying to magically fix things and also runs it registry cleaner which often times does more harm than good in my experience if not completely destroy the OS. Just google this and see the horror stories about Dell SupportAssist.

Also, make sure your disk is not encrypted, see this topic:

Is there a way to prevent Windows from activating BitLocker automatically?​

As I posted in the bitlocker thread:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
WOW... and HOLY EXCREMENT!! i JUST GOT my new DELL Inspiron. I had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER.I typed ENCRYPTION in the search box. It took me there and it was indeed turned on. I turned it off. It took 10 minutes to decrypt. I hope that's it

Mel

In the past I went to Dell site and manually updated my drivers, but with this new PC I manually run Dell Command/Update to give me the drivers I need. As for as Support Assist, I set its setting to NOT run automatically. I use Support Assist only to test my hardware if and when I want it to and not for all those other tests and optimizers it includes.
I manually run Dell Command/Update every month so I can choose whether or not I want a driver updated. It's anyone's choice if they want to run old drivers, but I disagree with that policy . Personally, If they come from Dell, I update them regularly. I also have driver updates from Windows update turned off in group policy so that I run solely on Dell's drivers.

compiler said:

Is that adage now outdated?

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In my opinion, yes it is. Computers are getting more complex all the time. Drivers are now being updated more often than ever to address any security flaws that are found. The same thing for bios. My PC had 3 bios updates in one month all addressing security issues.
One has to decide their own mindset and do what they gotta do. I look at it this way. I bought a state of the art system. I want to keep it running at its peak. Can a driver update cause me problems?. Sure it can. But so can an outdated driver.
I also run with bitlocker and secure boot off.
.

ok==turned bitlocker off. SSD decrypted. Is this going to start up again. Anyway, I uninstalled Dell Support Assist.
As I make a lot of changes, I'm doing more frequent Reflect B/Us.

I'm trying the right click again/ Let's see what happens.

Mel

Spartan said:

and also runs it registry cleaner

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Dell actually thinks that's a good idea? Running a Reg cleaner without knowing what is ok to delete can be very dangerous. On the rare occasions that I do run a Reg cleaner I only delete entries for programs that I know for sure that I uninstalled.

Winuser said:

Dell actually thinks that's a good idea? Running a Reg cleaner without knowing what is ok to delete can be very dangerous. On the rare occasions that I do run a Reg cleaner I only delete entries for programs that I know for sure that I uninstalled.

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exactly. At the time when I did actually trust it that it will magically keep my laptop in top-notch shape. I used to use VIPRE AntiVirus Plus. I remember after installing all my apps in a few days I would start getting errors or erratic system behavior so I would think ok, OCD check.... time to format... Before formatting, I have to uninstall the apps which have a license to ensure they would activate properly. VIPRE didn't show up in the Programs and Features app list so I thought it was a bug. Only later after I discovered the shenanigans of using Dell SupportAssist did I realize it was behind this! It was deleting registry entries silently as part of its tuneup background service and in turn, deleting the entry for uninstalling VIPRE and God knows what else it thinks is good to delete. No choices given to the user, no confirmation, NADA just WIPE the registry because it will make your computer faster...NOT!

See: dell support assist deleting registry entries - Google Search

Spartan said:

Make sure you unisntall Dell SupportAssist. It keeps running in the background trying to magically fix things and also runs it registry cleaner which often times does more harm than good in my experience if not completely destroy the OS. Just google this and see the horror stories about Dell SupportAssist.

Click to expand...

It only runs in the background if you have it optioned to run in the background. There's an option within the app to disable autostart. There are a number of tools in Support Assistant. One does not have to run them. The hardware tests are all I've ever used and they are on demand. That's all I use it for. I use Dell Command/Update in the same way. If you don't want something autostarting and don't know how to turn it off, Autoruns is your friend, as is disabling the service.. If you ever have to deal with Dell on a problem, you'll have to reinstall SupportAssist.

Sigh... right click Defender scan option is once again gone.

I still have these in my Control Panel program list:


Mobile connect driver



dell support/assist os recovery plugin for dell...



dell support/assist remediation



dell update for w10

Opinions (stay or go)

Mel

PROBLEM SOLVED!!! On all my computers I use the cheapie (as in FREE) version of Malwarebytes. Before I do a W10 update I b/u my computer. Before that I scan with Defender and then with Malwarebytes.
I've continued that practice here. But I forgot that Malwarebytes has a 14-day free premium trial before reverting to the free version.
So, it was doing its thing, acting as my A-V program. Which means Defender was merely...inactive. That's why no such context menu. I disabled the premium trial in the Malwarebytes setting... and the Defender scan option reappeared. There may never have been a problem in the first place

Mel