Remove Symantec Endpoint Protection in an Enterprise Environment

Question

I have many servers I need to remove Symantec Endpoint Protection from. I contacted Symantec and received the code below:

(Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product -Filter "Name='Symantec Endpoint Protection'" -ComputerName xxxxxx).Uninstall()

I have used it and it worked on 10 servers no problem at all. I tried it again today and am getting the error:

You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.
At line:1 char:1
+ (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product -Filter "Name='Symantec Endpoint Protection' ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull

Nothing has changed from when I started and am trying to figure out what the above error means. Also if I can get this to work does anyone see a way to add many servers to a foreach command or something.

`Get-WmiObject` doesn't return a result, so you're trying to call `Uninstall()` on a null value. You can avoid the error like this: `Get-WmiObject ... | ForEach-Object { $_.Uninstall() }` — Ansgar Wiechers, Jan 11 '17 at 11:09

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 11 '17 at 06:33

Two things from my side:

1) you should not use win32_product cause it is broken to a certain level. It is very slow alsso because it scans the entire thing.

2) In your case, "Name='Symantec Endpoint Protection'" reports Null for you which means that the value is not there. Please check the proper name.

For better performance and as part of enhancement , you should use the registry to fetch the details.

Function Get-RemoteSoftware{
<#
.SYNOPSIS 
Displays all software listed in the registry on a given computer.

.DESCRIPTION
Uses the SOFTWARE registry keys (both 32 and 64bit) to list the name, version, vendor, and uninstall string for each software entry on a given computer.

.EXAMPLE
C:\PS> Get-RemoteSoftware -ComputerName SERVER1
This shows the software installed on SERVER1.
#>

param (
    [Parameter(mandatory=$true,ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$true)][string[]]
    # Specifies the computer name to connect to
    $ComputerName
)

Process {
    foreach ($Computer in $ComputerName)
    {
        #Open Remote Base
        $reg=[microsoft.win32.registrykey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey('LocalMachine',$Computer)

        #Check if it's got 64bit regkeys
        $keyRootSoftware = $reg.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE")
        [bool]$is64 = ($keyRootSoftware.GetSubKeyNames() | ? {$_ -eq 'WOW6432Node'} | Measure-Object).Count
        $keyRootSoftware.Close()

        #Get all of they keys into a list
        $softwareKeys = @()
        if ($is64){
            $pathUninstall64 = "SOFTWARE\\WOW6432Node\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall"
            $keyUninstall64 = $reg.OpenSubKey($pathUninstall64)
            $keyUninstall64.GetSubKeyNames() | % {
                $softwareKeys += $pathUninstall64 + "\\" + $_
            }
            $keyUninstall64.Close()
        }
        $pathUninstall32 = "SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Uninstall"
        $keyUninstall32 = $reg.OpenSubKey($pathUninstall32)
        $keyUninstall32.GetSubKeyNames() | % {
            $softwareKeys += $pathUninstall32 + "\\" + $_
        }
        $keyUninstall32.Close()

        #Get information from all the keys
        $softwareKeys | % {
            $subkey=$reg.OpenSubKey($_)
            if ($subkey.GetValue("DisplayName")){
                $installDate = $null
                if ($subkey.GetValue("InstallDate") -match "/"){
                    $installDate = Get-Date $subkey.GetValue("InstallDate")
                }
                elseif ($subkey.GetValue("InstallDate").length -eq 8){
                    $installDate = Get-Date $subkey.GetValue("InstallDate").Insert(6,".").Insert(4,".")
                }
                New-Object PSObject -Property @{
                    ComputerName = $Computer
                    Name = $subkey.GetValue("DisplayName")
                    Version = $subKey.GetValue("DisplayVersion")
                    Vendor = $subkey.GetValue("Publisher")
                    UninstallString = $subkey.GetValue("UninstallString")
                    InstallDate = $installDate
                }
            }

            $subkey.Close()
        }
        $reg.Close()
    }
 }  

}

Note: Use the function or the query inside the function to get the result.

Hope it helps.

Remove Symantec Endpoint Protection in an Enterprise Environment

1 Answers1