Can't Uninstall Symantec AV

[can3gxw]

I have taken over the IT Administration at my company, and am currently working to bring all of our PCs into line with standard, updated software.  I am UNABLE to uninstall Symantec Antivirus Corporate 10.1.  It is constantly asking me for a password to uninstall, even though I have already disabled the user security for password in the System Center Console.  The password has been set at sometime in the past, and I am unable to retrieve it.  I have already tried 'symantec' and a host of others that I've found in the forums...  no luck.

We do NOT have a current support contract with Symantec, so I am being refused help through the regular channels.  The only place I was able to open a ticket was sales/service.  They emailed and said open a ticket with support.  The support site will not let me open a ticket because I don't have a support contract...  around in circles, and I'm still no further ahead.  Seems like nobody wants to listen to my issue, and we are virtually being held hostage here with this old, outdated program.

What I apparently need is Symantec Support to send me a copy of CleanWipe so that I can completely uninstall SAV.  Hopefully, technical solutions monitors these posts and will respond in kind...  please do NOT point me to the method to manually uninstall the program because I have 30 PCs to perform this on, and that would not be an efficient use of my time.

Thanks in advance

Gregg

[Ashish-Sharma · Accepted solution]

try to this

How to manually uninstall Symantec Endpoint Protection client from Windows 2000, XP and 2003, 32-bit Editions

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH102261

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\AV\AdministratorOnly\Security\UseVPUninstallPassword

Set to 0 to disable.

[can3gxw]

Thanks, Ashish...  to me, it seems stupid that Symantec won't just provide a "remove all utility", while making administrators jump through all these hoops just to remove an application.  I get the security part, you don't want users uninstalling the program to circumvent the security protocols.  But, again - admins SHOULD have tools at their disposal to do their job properly and effeciently.

I have taken the key listed above and put it in a REG file...  then, as part of my uninstall process, I update the key with a "0" then I can uninstall Symantec.  It's a workaround, but at least it's quick.  Thanks!

[Ashish-Sharma]

Most Welcome :)