After installing a trial version of Symantec Endpoint Protection on a client, in order to install a new package on the same system you should uninstall the trial version manually.
A method of substitute a pre-installed package with a new one is to running the new package on the old one, which will remove the old one and install itself on the system. However, this method will not work for trial versions since the trial version will not be removed automatically and should be uninstalled manually and the system will deny you.
Therefore if you have installed a trial package on several systems you will have to manually uninstall them which in some case this will be a very time consuming procedure.
The below method will assist you to solve this issue and will make it possible to install a full version package on a trial one which can be done remotely.
Note that this method will only remove the problem of installing a package on a trial package and will not make the trial package a full one. So that even after applying this procedure, the trial version will be expired on the date.
Procedure:
If the clients have connection to the server and the server is not dead, preferably perform the following settings:
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Cease the tamper protection
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Remove the password protection for stopping the SEP auto protect
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Remove the password protection for uninstalling the SEP client
If you don’t do the above mentioned, you will have to apply some modification to the script which will be used later on.
Note that if the communication method of the clients is pull, there will be time needed that the settings become applied.
Afterward, create the following scrip and make a batch file:
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cd "%programfiles%\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection"
smc.exe -stop
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 20
reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\AV" /v Trialware /f
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 20
cd "%programfiles%\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection"
smc -start
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Note that if you have to enter password for stopping the Symantec auto protect, then you should modify the second line “smc.exe -stop” to: “smc.exe -stop -p XXX” which XXX is the password of stopping the Symantec Auto protection. As mentioned before, you’d better remove such passwords from the management console to ease the procedure.
Running the above script, will remove the registry key and then without need of restarting, you will be able to install a package on the system and the package (if is configured to) will remove the trial version and install itself on the system.
Now the next step is to apply the script on the systems. To do so, you have two methods:
First, you can use applications such as PSEXEC (can be downloaded from
http://live.sysinternals.com) and use it to push the script on the clients using an administrator credentials. For further information, please refer to instruction of the application.
Second is using the Migration and Deployment Wizard of the SEP Manager, which in my idea will result better. This application is able to push and run a file -named Setup.exe- using an administrator credential on a list of computers. You only need to put the Setup.exe in a folder and introduce the folder to the wizard. Then wizard will run the Setup.exe file in that folder on the clients you selected in the wizard which can be a list of IP or computer names. For further instruction using the application, please refer to the application manual.
So for our purpose, you should convert the script to an exe file and rename it to Setup.exe.
In attached, you can find the application bat_to_exe_converter.exe which will convert batch files to executable file. You may find other applications in order to convert a batch file to executable format and the bat_to_exe_converter.exe is only a sample (which works!). Also there is a Setup.exe which is a pre-converted scrip and ready to use. Note that this attached Setup.exe file will work on the Symantec Endpoint Protection clients which have no password protection for stopping the auto protect. If the installed Symantec Clients is password protected, you should create your own script and convert it to an exe file.
After converting the script to exe format and renaming it to Setup.exe, you will be able to push it into your clients and the file will remove the registry key from your clients systems. Afterward it will be possible to push the Symantec Endpoint Protection full version package on the clients and the trial package will allow the full version to remove it and substitute it with itself.
Alternatively, if the clients have connection with the management console and the trial console is a lower version of the full version, first perform the procedure of removing trial from the clients. Then upgrade the console with the full and higher version. Then simply assign the package to the groups in the management console. Then the clients will refer to the management server and will download the newer version from the console and since the manual un-installation limit of the clients is removed, the old package will be removed with the new one and clients will become a full and new version.
Note that this procedure is only for a disaster recovery and is a risky method, so only use it in case of necessity. The limit of manual un-install of the trial version is for your safety, so do not rely on this method and never install the trial version on large scale.
This method is only for the cases that the trial version is unintentionally or by a very strict reason is installed on large scales.