If there's one thing that makes IT managers nervous these days, it's software that makes changes to their users' systems without their knowledge. So a recent automatic upgrade of Dell's support software was a cause of consternation for several readers.
In late May one reader was setting up a Dell laptop for a salesman to take on the road when up popped a message:
"New and Improved Dell Support 3 Coming Soon! Dell Support 2.x will be automatically upgraded via the Internet to the new Dell Support 3 by June 1st. No user interaction is required. Dell Support 3 conducts real-time scans of your computing environment (PC, peripherals and network devices) for potential technical support and security issues, sends an alert when an issue arises, offering advice and in many cases the option to choose to run an automated fix. To learn more about what it monitors, click here. NOTE: If you do not want to receive the upgrade, you need to uninstall Dell Support through Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel."
This bothered the reader for several reasons. "Isn't installing software with no user interaction, scanning systems, and sending data out of the network the definition of malware?" he wrote. "I don't really want Dell or anybody else scanning every device my network no matter how benign they say they are. And I don't want users clicking OK just because Dell thinks it can fix something that probably isn't broke because our IT department would know about it if it was. Our users aren't shy about letting us know if they have a problem, as they should. Needless to say, our number one priority right now is running Add/Remove on all thirty or so Dell systems that we have."
Another reader wasn't so fortunate as to see the notice of the upgrade before June 1st. "We suddenly started getting calls from some of our uses with Dells last week, all in a panic because they were getting 'emergency alerts' that they didn't understand," the reader wrote. "The alerts are being generated by some kind of spyware from Dell called Dell Support 3.0, which we did not install on these systems ... It also looks to be causing errors on some of the PCs. We just want to get rid of it."
Adding insult to injury as far as this reader was concerned was that the Dell support software proved difficult to remove. "Add/remove was not able to remove Dell Support 3 from several of our systems," the reader wrote. "On the Dell website we found a page that was headed 'How Do I Uninstall Dell Support 3.0?' But, wouldn't you know it, that page only has instructions for installing the thing, not uninstalling it. We wound up having to re-format those machines -- what a pain. Thanks for your support, Dell."
12:33:28 AM 
|
|
