I should have been more precise: I told him to hide the Microsoft services, so that his search would not change any of their status. I think that the Microsoft services were all enabled.
So, to answer your question, YES: of the non Microsoft services, he only enabled the "Dell client management service" and saw a crash.
I will have to try to do that again, next time I am at his apt.
What are your concerns with Dell and privacy? This is news to me.
I'm sorry, it has been a long time and I don't recall if I found evidence of the Dell software calling home or I was just behaving with my usual paranoia. I'm one of the people that disables all reporting and monitoring features of Windows or any app that I possibly can tweak. I don't trust anyone to have free access to my personal info.
Update: my father in law has been running his computer for about a week now with only the "Dell client management service" disabled. All other services and startup programs are running.
He has not seen a single freeze during this time.
So, it looks highly likely that the "Dell client management service" is the culprit.
Great news and congrats on isolating the offending app so quickly.
At your next convenience, you might try downloading & installing the Dell client software again and at least he'll know how to disable it if the fault returns.
Sometimes that sw does add another troubleshooting aid. Well done.
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