Sophos Control Center before installing antivirus on client computers by default finds and removes other third party antivirus software. This is a very handy feature as it allows to remove old antivirus solution and deploy Sophos without need to login on client computers locally.

Sometimes, however, Sophos refuses to remove third party software and installation fails with following error logged in Sophos Control Center:

Error: Installation Failed
Error Code: 00000049
Error Description: Cancelled Sophos installation and removal of third-party security software The software being removed may include a firewall or other component that is not being replaced Make sure the package you are installing provides equivalent protection to the package being removed.

As explained in error description, this means that third party contains some components not present in Sophos software you trying to deploy. For example firewall, browser protection, etc. Installation gets cancelled to avoid reducing level of protection you currently have.

This default behavior can be overwritten:

• On the server navigate to: \\server-name\SophosUpdate\CIDs\S000\SAVSCFXP\crt
• From file data.zip extract CRT.cfg and place it in the same folder
• Open CRT.cfg with any text editor and update following lines:
• RemoveFirewalls=1
• RemoveSuites=1
• RemoveUpdateTools=1
• Save changes and re-deploy Sophos to your clients.

Windows SBS 2008
Windows XP
Windows 7
Sophos Business Antivirus
McAfee Endpoint Protection