Error 3005

I have the same problem.  Did you ever find a solution?

Can you stop the Sophos Anti-Virus service (services.msc) and try again?

Hi BigRed92,

Please check if the SophosAdministrator group exists, create it if not and ensure the administrative account you are performing the uninstall is a member of it.  Follow one of the sections below to check group membership and add your user account.

Note:

• If you have a 'Home' or 'Starter' edition of the Windows operating system use the instructions in 'Checking group membership with a command prompt' as the 'Local User and Group' snap-in is not available.
• If you need to check your operating system see article 13302.
• If the computer is a Domain Controller when instructed to create a group, create a domain local security group.
• Nesting groups in the Active directory is not currently supported. 

Checking group membership with the 'Local Users and Groups' snap-in

1. Open the Computer Management snap-in (Start | Run | Type: compmgmt.msc | Press return).
2. From the left-hand tree expand 'Local Users and Groups' | 'Groups'.  Example:
   
   
   
   Note: If you do not see 'Groups' you most likely have a 'Home' edition of Windows and therefore must check group membership with the command prompt (see section below).
   
   
3. Locate the 'SophosAdministrator' group.  If the group does not exist:
   1. Right-click the 'Group' folder from the left-hand tree and select 'New Group...'
   2. Enter the group name precisely as the one-word group name (one word): SophosAdministrator
   3. Click the 'Create' button.
4. Right-click the SophosAdministrator group and select 'Properties'.  Example:
   
   
   
   
5. Add your user account (which must already be a local Administrator) to the SophosAdministrator group.
6. Close the Computer Management snap-in.
7. Open the Add/Remove Programs list (Start | Run | Type: appwiz.cpl | Press Return).
8. Select the 'Sophos Anti-Virus' component and uninstall it.

Checking group membership with a command prompt

1. Click the Start button and type cmd.
   
   
   
   
2. Right-click on the cmd program and select 'Run as administrator'.
   
   
   
   If the User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears click 'Yes' to acknowledge the action.
   
   
   
   
3. Create the (or attempt to re-create the existing) group by running the following command:
   • net localgroup sophosadministrator /add
   
   If the group did not exist the command will return:
   The command completed successfully.
   
   If the group already existed the command will return:
   System error 1379 has occurred.
   
   In either case, proceed to the next step.
   
   
4. Add your user account to the group.  The command shown below adds the user john to the sophosadministrator group.  Replace john with your username (if you need to find your username type whoami into the command prompt first)
   • net localgroup sophosadministrator john /add
   
   If the user was not already a member of the group and successfully added the command will return:
   The command completed successfully.
   
   If the user was already a member of the group the command will return:
   System error 1378 has occurred.

The specified account name is already a member of the group.
   
   
5. Type the following command to confirm your account is now recognized as a member of the group:
   • net localgroup sophosadministrator
   
   The command will list the current user accounts and should show your user account is a member of the SophosAdministrator group.
   
   
   
   If your account is shown you can open Add/Remove Programs and remove the 'Sophos Anti-Virus' component. 

If the error still occurs after adding your account to the group...

First, log off and back on to the computer (or restart the computer) and try the uninstall again.  If the error still occurs and you have confirmed your account is a member of SophosAdministrator group.  It is recommended to run the command:

net localgroup | find /I "Sophos"

This command will list the 'pre-Windows 2000' name which is important in ensuring the Sophos installer queries the group successfully.