Service Alerts

Anti-Virus Software

Uninstalling Symantec and installing Forefront Client Security on personal or unmanaged computers

Operating System: Windows XP (not Windows XP Media Center). Forefront Client Security does not work on Windows XP Media Center. See a complete list of supported operating systems and alternatives for Windows XP Media Center users.

If you are a faculty or staff member and your computer is supported by technical support staff, please contact your support staff prior to performing this procedure.

Preparation

Data Backup (Optional)

We recommend that you back up your system and/or any important content stored on your system prior to performing this procedure. See the Data Backup topic for more information about backing up your important data.

Set up for Microsoft Update

This procedure ensures that your computer is set up to find any updates for Forefront.

  1. Open Internet Explorer and go to the URL "http://update.microsoft.com". From here there are two possibilities:
    • If you are already set up to use Microsoft Update, you will see a welcome message and can move onto the steps to uninstall Symantec.
    • If you are not set up to use Microsoft Update, you will be prompted to do so. Continue with step 3.
  2. Click Install if you are prompted. This installs the ActiveX control that is required to run the update process.
  3. Click Update Windows. Once the install process is complete, a welcome message displays. You will return to this screen later in the process.

Uninstalling Symantec AntiVirus from your computer

Symantec has at least two components installed on your computer, depending on which product you installed. You will repeat this process for each component. It is important to uninstall Symantec completely, or it may interfere with your network connections once you install another anti-virus product.

  1. Close all open programs. You will have to restart your computer once this process is complete.
  2. Open the Control Panel by selecting Start and then Control Panel.
  3. Select the Uninstall a program option from the Programs group.
  4. One at a time, select each specific Symantec component you have installed and click Uninstall or Uninstall/Change:
    • LiveUpdate 3.0 (Symantec Corporation)
    • Symantec Endpoint Protection Client
    • Symantec AntiVirus
  5. You may receive a warning message that an unidentified program wants to access your computer. Click Allow. You may also receive warning messages from Vista that there are problems with your computer security as different Symantec programs are removed. This will be resolved once you install Forefront.
  6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have removed all the Symantec components. When you uninstall LiveUpdate, Windows will ask to for permission to proceed. Click Continue. Then click Yes when Windows asks if you want to remove LiveUpdate.
  7. Click OK if Windows informs you that the component has been successfully removed.
  8. Close the Control Panel.
  9. Go to the Symantec Web site and download their removal tool. Although the page is titled “Uninstalling your Norton products on Windows Vista," the page provides options for many Windows operating system versions.
  10. Go to step 3 and select the product for your operating system. Save the Norton_Removal_Tool.exe file to your downloads folder.
  11. Open your Downloads folder and double-click the Norton_Removal_Tool.exe file to open it. Click Allow.
  12. The tool displays a list of files/programs that it will remove. You will have to restart your computer after the process is complete. Click Next.
  13. Select the “I accept the license agreement” option and click Next.
  14. Enter the text as prompted in the security check and click Next twice. You may see a message from the Windows Security Center that your computer might not be protected because Symantec is no longer installed. This message will go away after Forefront Client Security is installed.
  15. Click Restart when prompted.

Installing and Configuring Forefront Client Security

  1. Open your Downloads folder and double-click the microsoft_forefront_1.5.1972.0_ut.exe file. Click Run to run the program, then click Install.
  2. Click Finish. While Forefront connects to the Internet to see if updates are available, the Microsoft Forefront Security icon in the system tray displays a warning Microsoft Forefront Client Security icon in system tray. The update process may take several minutes to complete. When all updates to the program and the virus definition files have been installed, the Forefront system tray icon changes to reflect that it is up-to-date. Forefront icon up-to-date
  3. Open the Tools menu and click Options.
  4. Select the following options:
    • Automatically scan my computer
    • Check for updated definitions before scanning
    • Apply default actions to items detected during a scan
  5. Click Save.

If you experience any trouble with this procedure, please check the Errors page. You can also contact the ITS Help Desk for support.

Updating the Firewall

If you uninstalled the Symantec Firewall, you should enable the Windows XP firewall.