Uninstalling Managed Symantec Antivirus Client With Forgotten Password

This week at my job, I had a problem with uninstalling Symantec's antivirus. Not a big deal, you say? That's what I thought too, but it turned out to be a major hassle.

A hassle with what turned out to be a simple answer.

The Symantec antivirus is centrally managed from a server, and it's locked down with a password so people can't uninstall it or change any settings. For the first time since I've worked here I had a reason to uninstall it from someone's computer, but guess what? The password given to me didn't work. So I contacted the guy that worked here before me and installed the system, but he couldn't remember what that correct password was.

So I was stuck. I tried some other passwords I thought might work, but of course they didn't.

So I asked Google for the answer, and immediately found what I was looking for.

To get around the administrative password and uninstall the Symantec antivirus client, just open up regedit and navigate your way to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\INTEL\LANDesk\VirusProtect6\CurrentVersion\AdministratorOnly\Security

Once there, change the two values LockUnloadServices and UseVPUninstallPassword from 1 to 0.

Now you can uninstall the client without being hassled by "the man".