Endpoint Protection

I have been assigned the task of removing/uninstalling a managed Symantec Endpoint Protection client from a laptop.  The managed SEP client was originally installed when the laptop was a member of a former domain (the laptop is no longer joined to that domain, and the owner wants to move the laptop to a new domain).  I tried to remove the SEP client while the laptop was running on a local/standalone basis using the usual Windows Control Panel remove program process.  It worked initially, but then I got a series of "file not found" errors and I had to reverse the uninstallation process and restore the SEP managed client.  I have removed unmanaged SEP clients in the past using the Windows Control Panel program removal process without any problems.  I assume that the uninstall routine is trying to find some expected files that were on the original domain when SEP managed client was installed.

Given this, what is the best way to completely remove the managed SEP client from this laptop?  The plan is to install Norton Security on the laptop, which is what is on the other workstations on this new domain.

My understanding is that there is a special tool available from Symantec to unconditionally remove the SEP client.  I am aware of the problems that can result from having even parts of two anti-malware/anti-virus programs running on a machine at the same time.  Hence my wish to completely remove SEP prior to installing Norton.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

If you have an active support contract then you can call and get cleanwipe or grab it from the full install file, see here:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO74877

Otherwise, you're stuck with the manual removal, which is brutal:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH161956

Hello,

You can use several methods to uninstall Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) or its components. If these common methods fail, you can use the CleanWipe utility.

NOTE: You may need to download the latest version of CleanWipe for SEP 12.1 for uninstalling the Managed client version.

If you need help using CleanWipe, please contact Technical Support.

Regards,

if you have the media downloaded from file connect , cleanwipe is under tools folder

\Tools\CleanWipe

https://support.symantec.com/en_US/article.HOWTO74877.html

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query on Symantec community. 

You have two options

1) Cleanwipe utility:-

The Cleanwipe utility is intended for use only when uninstalling Symantec Endpoint Protection from the Windows control panel fails. For information on obtaining this utility, see this http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO74877. Basically need support contract to get an access to downoad this tool.

2) If you don't have support contract need to remove it manually.

You can perform a manual removal. Instructions for the manual removal of Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 can be found in the knowledge base article.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH161956 

This is time consuming process however can be a very last resort. 

Thanks to everyone that responded to my question.  All replies were very helpful.  All things considered, I have decided to try the CleanWipe program.  I was (finally) able to download it from FileConnect this afternoon.  Hopefully it will succeed where the Windows add/remove program function did not.

I will post anothe note here after trying this solution on Thursday afternoon, for the benefit of others that may encounter the same problem.