Sophos Small Business Solutions: how to uninstall Sophos security software

This article describes how to remove the current versions of Sophos Anti-Virus, Sophos Computer Security and Sophos Security Suite from your network of Windows and Mac OS X computers, as well as from your Windows servers. The number of products to remove depends on which Sophos software package you are using.For a list of the products that are included in each software suite, please see Sophos Small Business Solutions: Overview (inglés).

Note: these instructions will remove all Sophos Small Business products from your network. To remove Sophos Client Firewall or PureMessage for Microsoft Exchange only, follow the detailed instructions below and remove that one component only.

What to remove

Remove the following items, in this order, from your managed computers:

• Sophos AutoUpdate
• Sophos Client Firewall (if installed)
• Sophos Anti-Virus
• Sophos Remote Management System (RMS)

And the following items from your server:

• Sophos Control Center
• Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (SOPHOS)
• PureMessage for Microsoft Exchange
  

See the Removal Instructions section below for detailed instructions for each operating system.

Removal instructions

See below for instructions on how to uninstall Sophos security software components from:

• Windows NT, 95/98/ME, and Windows 2000/XP/2003.
• Windows Vista
• Mac OS X
• Windows Servers

Windows NT, 95/98 and Windows 2000/XP/2003

For some versions of Windows, you click an 'Add/Remove' button and, for others, it is a 'Remove' button.

Note: Some of the components listed below may not be present, depending on the product you have installed.

At each computer:

1. Open 'Control Panel'.
2. Select 'Add/Remove Programs'.
3. Select 'Sophos AutoUpdate', click 'Add/Remove', and follow the instructions on the screen.
4. Select 'Sophos Client Firewall', click 'Add/Remove', and follow the instructions on the screen.
5. Select 'Sophos Anti-Virus', click 'Add/Remove', and follow the instructions on the screen.
6. Select 'Sophos Remote Management System', click 'Add/Remove', and follow the instructions on the screen.
7. You may be prompted to restart the computer.

Windows Vista

Note: Some of the components listed below may not be present, depending on the product you have installed.

At each computer:

1. Open 'Control Panel'.
2. Select 'Programs and Features'.
3. Select 'Sophos AutoUpdate', click 'Uninstall', and follow the instructions on the screen.
4. Select 'Sophos Client Firewall', click 'Add/Remove', and follow the instructions on the screen.
5. Select 'Sophos Anti-Virus', click 'Uninstall', and follow the instructions on the screen.
6. Select 'Sophos Remote Management System', click 'Uninstall', and follow the instructions on the screen.
7. You may be prompted to restart the computer.

Mac OS X

You will need to enter an administrator username and password to run the uninstaller.

• For Mac OS X version 7.0.2+, at each computer:

1. Go to Macintosh HD|Library|Sophos Anti-Virus.
2. Select 'Remove Sophos Anti-Virus.pkg'.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen.

• For earlier versions of Mac OS X, for step 1 go to the location Macintosh HD|Library|Application Support|Sophos Anti-Virus.

Windows Servers (the computer you use to manage the rest of the computers)

Note: Some of the components listed below may not be present, depending on the products you have installed.

At the Windows server where you have installed the Sophos Control Center, open the 'Add or Remove programs' window as follows:

• On a Windows 2000 server, click Start|Settings|Control Panel|Add/Remove programs.
• On a Windows 2003 server, click Start|Control Panel|Add or Remove programs.

1. Select 'Sophos AutoUpdate', click 'Uninstall', and follow the instructions on the screen.
2. Select 'Sophos Anti-Virus', click 'Uninstall', and follow the instructions on the screen.
3. Select 'Sophos Remote Management System', click 'Uninstall', and follow the instructions on the screen.
4. Select Sophos Control Center and click 'Remove'. Follow the instructions given on the screen.
5. Select PureMessage for Microsoft Exchange and click 'Remove'. Follow the instructions given on the screen.
6. Go to the command prompt (click Start > Run > type cmd.exe and press press the enter key).
   
7. Type the following command to drop the database file and then press the Enter key:
   sqlcmd -S .\sophos -E -Q "drop database SOPHOS4"