Uninstall Sophos endpoint security and control

I am also trying to uninstall Sophos Endpoint from an XP Pro (SR3) computer too.  I have disabled Tamper Protection and been able (through Control Panel - Remove Programs) to remove the SOPHOS AUTO-UPDATING.

I then tried to remove the FIREWALL program but got ERROR 1324. The path My Pictures contains an invalid character.

How do I proceed?

Paul

Hello Paul,

could you show the corresponding log?

Christian

I ran "C:\Documents and Settings\Sara\My Documents\Downloads\PendMoves\movefile.exe" "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sophos\Web Intelligence\swi_ifslsp.dll" DELETE in a batch file and it scheduled it for deletion on this last XP Machine Christian and it scheduled it for deletion on reboot ... but swi_ifslsp.dll is still not deleted and is still refusing manual deletion.

Any ideas on this please?

Thanks

Paul

Hello Paul,

question is - why is it left behind? Admittedly Windows XP installations have a long history and thus are susceptible to fouling. Nevertheless it's not very likely that three out of three are causing troubles that can only be resolved by rather violent measures, many uninstall errors are correctable. So don't start to wield the axe at the first failure.

Anyway, please check if the DLL is still registered with winsock - from a cmd window netsh winsock show catalog (can be long so pipe it to a file). If SAV is no longer running (and already perhaps incompletely uninstalled) so that you can disable Web protection you could try to remove the LSP (please note there can be more than one entry) from the catalog using netsh winsock remove provider <catalog ID>.

Christian

Ran netsh winsock show catalog and there are two entries:

DCAAE4DE-B769-4318-B7FA-09DC17438FF8 and

2AC5A5CC-B821-4069-B9FF-D3B79355270B

I found this winsock editor (https://www.technize.net/winsockservicesview-winsock-viewer/) or is there a safer way to disable these two entries please?

Paul

Hello Paul,

if uninstall is no longer available and you want to get rid of them there's not much else you can do.

Christian

Oops - there was a third one - FCB06AC5-7321-4BAA-A499-FC205998D218

The CATALOG IDs are 1107, 1108 and 1109.  I have tried netsh winsock remove provider 1107 and ... 1108 and ... 1109 but CMD said the command was not found.

Hello Paul,

hm, netsh winsock was introduced with XP SP2 but remove might have come later. netsh winsock -? should tell if it's available. If not then there's just netsh winsock reset, article tell you that potentially you have to reinstall affected programs - as far as Sophos is concerned you want to uninstall it anyway.

Christian

That computer is running XP Pro SR3 and if you do netsh winsock ? (or help) remove is not listed.  The options are ?, Dump, Help or Show (not even Show Catalog.

How do you remove entries in this environment please?

Hello Paul,

not even Show Catalog
catalog is a subcommand of show, with netsh simply append -? until you no longer get a The following commands are available.  They haven't revoked winsock reset with SP3, the command should be there. The article I've linked in the previous post also mentions a method (working directly with the registry) in case reset is not available.

Christian

Yes netsh winsock show catalog worked - that is how I found the Catalog IDs but I could not see how to write the screen list (not that long to scroll through) to a file and netsh winsock remove 1107 command was not recognised.

Reset is available but I was concerned about what else may get knocked out.  If I could write it to a file I could then maybe ADD items back in.  Is there a way to export the winsock file and then use like a text editor to hack it up and then put it back?

Paul

Hello Paul,

write [...] to a file
simply with redirection.

Reset
the list looks standard except for the Sophos entries so it should be back to normal after the reset. How additional LSPs are installed depends on the software, there's no backup/edit/restore mechanism.

Christian

Hello Paul,

write [...] to a file
simply with redirection.

Reset
the list looks standard except for the Sophos entries so it should be back to normal after the reset. How additional LSPs are installed depends on the software, there's no backup/edit/restore mechanism.

Christian

Well I couldnt get it to write to a file so I just went for the reset since you said it all looked pretty standard Christian.  Rebooted and was able to remove that last piece.

Ran a final REGEDIT and MSCONFIG just to check there was nothing else that I could see of SOPHOS and it all looked good so thank you very much for cleaning up the 3 XP-Pro machines.

What do I need to do differently to have a better success at removing it on my Windows 10 64 bit machine please? (This is the last machine now!!)

Thank you

Paul

Hello Paul,

general recommendation is: Check that the installation is current and there aren't any updating/install errors. Uninstall from Programs and Features or with a custom script - custom meaning that you obtain the current Product IDs from the registry. In case of a failure try to determine and correct the cause (if necessary open a support ticket or post here), do not try to "remove" a product by deleting registry keys, files, and folders.

Christian

HAppy Christmas Christian.

You will be pleased to know that the uninstall on the WINDOWS 10 64 bit machine went fine so I am all fixed up now.  Thank you so much for your help.

Paul