Sophos Antivirus on Windows Vista HP x64 not detected by Windows Security Centre
I want my evening back!
Paranoia set in when I turned my PC on about four hours ago… Vista had been happily reporting that my machine was protected (for the last year+)… and it was, because it is loaded with Sophos Antivirus 7.6.8.. and it updated itself when I turned the machine on..
So why would Microsoft make me paranoid with this old chestnut:
I ran windows defender full scan, then for good measure the Conficker removal tool… then a full virus check… nothing found… hmm I thought, I’ll give the search engines a go.
Sophos appeared to know all about the issue, but it was stored deep in their knowledge base.
Microsoft also had ‘Windows Security Centre does not detect the antivirus application that is installed on a Windows Vista-based computer’ KB article. KB952923
I’m going to try the hotfix, and will report back if I doesn’t work… I’ll be paying close attention to the Sophos knowledge base as it seems to have more steps that Microsoft originally intended.
SpittingCAML
May 29th, 2009 at 12:26 am
[...] Sophos Antivirus on Windows Vista HP x64 not detected by Windows Security Centre [...]
May 29th, 2009 at 5:01 am
Interestingly, this has just popped up for me too, today - similarly running Vista x64 and Sophos 7.6.8. Vista just offered me the chance to upgrade to SP2, which I duly followed, but that didn’t seem to fix it either. I wonder if it’s a problem with a Sophos or Windows update?
May 29th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Hi Ben,
I did exactly the same as you, and installed SP2, but it didn’t solve the issue. I’m currenly in contact with sophos technical support on the issue. I suggest you get in contact and report to them when the issue first occurred by looking in the event log for Windows Security Centre.
Sophos are wondering if this is an issue with 7.6.8
SC
May 29th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Trawling through my event logs, the problem seems to originate on the 23rd May when I did a reboot following an install of the newest VMWare workstation (an upgrade from an older version).
The error in the event log: “No versions of component ‘SystemInformation’ are registered. SystemInformation cannot be returned.” listed as Sophos Antivirus as the source.
May 29th, 2009 at 8:57 am
I’m thinking this is a WMI issue, and found a few errors, however http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950375 seems to cover that one.
May 29th, 2009 at 9:19 am
I’m going to give this a try:
If you experience behavior when using WMI, such as application errors or scripts that used to work are no longer working, you may have a corrupted WMI repository. To fix a corrupted WMI repository, use these steps:
Windows XP and Windows Vista
Click Start, Run and type CMD.EXE
Note: In Windows Vista, you need to open an elevated Command Prompt window. To do so, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
Type this command and press Enter:
net stop winmgmt
Using Windows Explorer, rename the folder %windir%\System32\Wbem\Repository. (For example, %windir%\System32\Wbem\Repository_bad). %windir% represents the path to the Windows directory, which is typically C:\Windows.
Switch to Command Prompt window, and type the following and press ENTER after each line:
net start winmgmt
EXIT
May 29th, 2009 at 9:24 am
One you’ve renamed the repository and restarted the service, run this command (in an elevated permission/administrator command line):
winmgmt /salvagerepository
You should see the message: Repository is consistent
May 29th, 2009 at 9:27 am
None of this has worked for me so far
May 29th, 2009 at 9:43 am
BREAKING NEWS:
I found a solution
http://blog.mgallen.com/?p=302
May 29th, 2009 at 9:46 am
[...] gave up in the end (see this post and comments) and went for a new install of Sophos AV, just in case one of the updates made it go pear [...]
May 30th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Hi,
Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post.
May 31st, 2009 at 1:42 pm
[...] This is likely to have something to do with the other Sophos issues that are currently related to an update in the last week. See Sophos Antivirus on Windows Vista HP x64 not detected by Windows Security Centre. [...]