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Unable to uninstall AutoUpdate due to missing MSI file. Can I get old MSI file and/or will SophosZap do

I have standalone Sophos Endpoint Security and Control on my Windows 8.1 PC. On 21 Jan 2021 when updating directly from Sophos, an attempt was made to install a new version of AutoUpdate. This failed. The Application Event Log had:

Product: Sophos AutoUpdate -- Error 1714. The older version of Sophos AutoUpdate cannot be removed. Contact your technical support group. System Error 1612.

I found some help on the Sophos Community:
community.sophos.com/.../sophos-auto-update-4-3-10-27-cant-uninstall-due-to-missing-msi-file

I thus checked the following registry key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\9B1ACBFAC6946EA489EAE31AFC6FC545\InstallProperties

and found the key LocalPackage referenced C:\Windows\Installer\71dea.msi. When I looked for this file in the folder C:\Windows\Installer it wasn't there.

Looking back through the AutoUpdate logs I find AutoUpdate was successfully last installed on 30 Jul 2020 19:29:59. So the MSI file seems to have been deleted sometime since Jul 2020, for reasons I don't know.

The Sophos Community entry said if I can get the MSI file from the previous version of AutoUpdate I can place it in C:\Windows\Installer and then it should uninstall.

As this previous version is only 6 months old is it possible to get a version of this MSI or the AutoUpdate install kit that I could extract the MSI from?

Looking at the View Sophos Product info it said:
  Endpoint security and control: V10.8
  Updating software Sophos AutoUpdate: V5.16.37

Looking at the AutoUpdate files in C:\Program Files (x86)\Sophos\AutoUpdate and the file version of ALUpdate.exe is 5.16.37.37, Date modified: 19 Sep 2019 08:56.

If this is not possible would using SophosZap to clear out Sophos completely and reinstall from scratch be a way to go?

            Cheers

            Chris



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  • Typically if you're in a network environment with the on-prem version you can subscribe to previous versions, create a disruption of that package and harvest the MSI file.  In your case, I think SophosZap might be the simplest option.  You could go into Programs and Features and remove other components more conventionally so only Sophos AutoUpdate exists.

  • Thanks, yes uninstalling everything except AutoUpdate conventionally and then using SophosZap to remove AutoUpdate worked. I then installed Endpoint Security and Control afresh which I downloaded from my MySophos account. The only issue was the Client Firewall seemed to be set to block everything when installed afresh and I had to change this to get internet access to work.

        Cheers

        Chris

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  • Thanks, yes uninstalling everything except AutoUpdate conventionally and then using SophosZap to remove AutoUpdate worked. I then installed Endpoint Security and Control afresh which I downloaded from my MySophos account. The only issue was the Client Firewall seemed to be set to block everything when installed afresh and I had to change this to get internet access to work.

        Cheers

        Chris

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