Hi yeah I have the same problem. I tried the SylinkDrop.exe but it didnt work returing a message that it was also unable to stop the SMC service.

I disabled UAC and tried to manually stop the SMC service but was unable to.
These instructions worked fine with my XP machine http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security....

I even used a batch file as below.
c:
cd \"Program Files"\Symantec\"Symantec Endpoint Protection"\ 
Smc -stop
copy \\<machinename>\SylinkUpdates\AU_WKS_MEL\Sylink.xml C:\"Program Files"\"Symantec"\"Symantec Endpoint Protection"
Smc -import sylink.xml
Smc -start

The only way I was able to change my Vista machine from unmanged to managed was to:
1. go into services and disable it,
2. then go to task manager and end the process on SCM.exe.
3. I copied the sylink.xml manually and ran the Smc -import sylink.xml
4. changed the service back to automatic and started it.
The machine then appeared in my SEPM in the temporary group.

We will have 50 unmanaged machines comming onto our network very soon and need to be able to automate the process.

Any ideas?

if you works on Vista, try this
run "CMD" as administrator, accept the request from UAC
then CD C:\Porgram Files\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection
then smc -stop

smc -start in the same way.

it should works

use psexec to run command as an admin

I'll use the same topic to ask: what exaclty does smc-stop do?

I mean, after exceuting it, I see that some services are still running...

Smc -stop stops the Symantec Management Client service. This is useful in case you need to replace a sylink.xml file on a workstation.

Hope that helps!

Thanks David.

But I'd like to know each action executed by this command (services stopped, processess killed...)