Remove Symantec Endpoint Protection in an Enterprise Environment - powershell

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.

Answer 1

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.