HOW do I get rid of any "Dell" software in this machine, once and for all? You don't need any of it. You may Uninstall all of it, using Windows "Apps & features". You might want to keep Dell Update. It will show you a list of available updates and you may select the ones that you want installed. You don't need it, though, as you can periodically go to Dell's support site to check for available updates. You may also uninstall many apps and features of Windows if you don't want them. As for anti-virus, if yours takes too many resources you could uninstall it (or clean install Windows) and try Microsoft Defender. It's free and included with Windows. You can adjust its settings to make it even more secure, such as setting up Ransomware protection with Controlled Folder Access.  If you currently have just a hard drive, replacing it with an SSD will make your system faster, more responsive and will allow updates to download and install more quickly so they don't occupy resources so long. No, I do NOT want to do a clean install of Windows 10, mainly because no reinstall media was provided with the machine; that's just another headache to be dealt with. Dell doesn't provide installation media because you can get the latest release from Microsoft whenever you want. Right now you can download Windows 10 22H2 or Windows 11 22H2. Using Microsoft's Media Creation tool, download a Windows installation ISO to use with something like Rufus to create a bootable flash drive. Or, let the Media Creation tool create the flash drive directly.  A clean install means that you choose what you want to install on top, rather than having to identify and install each unwanted item individually, as you have tried.
Hi Forum Folk, I'm having endless issues with the infamous '100% disk use' in an Inspiron 3580, and one of the 'offenders' is a bunch of Dell background processes. I try killing the processes with Task Manager, but they pop up as fast as I can shut them down, and I can't simply delete them because there's always something in use, or the folder is open in some other app somewhere. How do I get rid of any "Dell" software in this machine, once and for all? I have enough trouble with Windows hogging disk use with needless updates and upgrades to things I never use, the worst offenders being things I can't touch, like "System" and whatever antivirus I'm running at the moment, then it's updates to Edge, Microsoft Store, Your Phone, Work or School Account (none of which I have ever used nor will I), then Dell steps right up and shows half a dozen processes running as well. I don't need Dell hogging what's left of my resources, on a machine that's been out of warranty for a year or more. The only things I want left on this machine are whatever might be necessary to keep the hardware running properly; not interested in OS recovery, or Support Assist, or "Bradbury agent" or whatever that cryptic thing is, or Dell Data collection "services" or Dell Data vault. I want all of it gone, and since it all seems to come and go as it pleases, it's proving supremely difficult to just delete it., and there seems to be no "uninstall" feature that I can find. I have no problem rooting it out of the Registry if need be, had to go to that extreme more than once with software that didn't want to go, or didn't uninstall fully.   No, I do NOT want to do a clean install of Windows 10, mainly because no reinstall media was provided with the machine; that's just another headache to be dealt with. Any suggestions will be gratefully implemented.
Want to get rid of all Dell software