Uninstalling WD b2 from startup or logon script.

[Guest]

Hey gang. I'm trying to remove Defender from a network silently.

As close as I can get from a command line is a promt to uninstall by
executing "msiexec.exe /x WindowsDefender.msi"

If I put /qn or /quiet or /passive, it terminates without action.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Well - I tried a number of variations, and seemed to have the same
experience you did. However, when I got home, OneCare was warning me that
Windows Defender had disappeared!

So--one of those attempts worked, but rather slowly--let me see if there's a
log file.

Very wierd. I have Windows Installer logging turned on, and there is no log
file for the uninstall. There are log files for both the install, and the
definition install imediately after--but those are the only log files with
todays date on them. Now to check the event logs--OK - looks like at 12:45,
an uninstall succeeded.

No UI means just that, I guess! I'm surprised there's no log, but probably
I should have added logging as a parameter on the uninstall command.

I believe what worked was probably: msiexec /uninstall windowsdefender.msi
/quiet


----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.private.security.spyware.networking
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 12:31 PM
Subject: Uninstalling WD b2 from startup or logon script.

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

Ok - I've had a good time with this:

msiexec /i windowsdefender.msi /quiet /log install.log
installs, but not completely quietly--the UI pops at the end, and a
definition update cycle is initiated.

msiexec /uninstall windowsdefender.msi /quiet /log uninstall.log

works, and is silent.

 

[Guest]

I want to deploy WD b2 using group policies. All the computers are currently
running Win Antispyware Beta. Do I have to uninstall first, or can I just
create a software install group policy using the msi file and run it over the
current version?

Thanks so much!
Pavla

 

[Bill Sanderson MVP]

I've not done this, and can't recommend such a broad deployment of a beta
product.

However, in normal consumer usage, the standard upgrade does just what you
are proposing, so I think this should work fine.

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