Uninstall Sophos Anti-Virus get Internal Error 2738

Recently I was attempting to uninstall Sophos Anti-Virus from my computer to change which server I get the anti-virus updates from as we are switching which server anti-virus server is run on. I decided that I would uninstall the old version and re-install as this would be the easiest way for me to change settings that were all grayed out not allowing me to change. I was able to un-install everything except for the Sophos AutoUpdate service as it would error out with an Internal Error 2738. Doing a quick 10 minute Google search found that I should attempt to register the vbscript.dll file. To do this follow the instructions below. Please note I am running Windows 7 32 bit.

  • Click the Start button/pearl
  • In the Search programs and files box just above Start button do a search for Command. This will bring up the Command Prompt in the search. Right click this and Run as Administrator.
  • This should open a command prompt window with the default file path of c:\Windows\system32. Type the following in the command prompt then hit enter:

    regsvr32 vbscript.dll

  • If success you will see a message that says: “DllRegisterServer in vbscript.dll succeeded.”

Now that we have done that you can minimize the command prompt and attempt to uninstall the Sophos AutoUpdate client that we could not previously. If you are still getting the error above you will need to continue process below to delete a registry key. I would highly suggest backing up the registry before doing any changes to the registry in case something goes wrong which it shouldn’t.

  • Bring back up your Administrator Command Prompt
  • Paste the following into the command prompt and then press enter:

    reg delete “HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{B54F3741-5B07-11CF-A4B0-00AA004A55E8}” /f

  • Once you have deleted the registry key run the regsvr32 vbscript.dll command that we did above

Now that we have deleted the registry key and re-registered the vbscript.dll file we should now have success in un-installing Sophos. If you are still having problems with this I highly recommend contacting Sophos support.

Disable web browser tab previews in Windows 7

Recently I upgraded my work machine from Windows Vista to Windows 7. While learning the new features of 7 I found that Aero likes to show tab previews of each tab I have open in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera. I am the kind of guy that keeps multiple tabs open almost all day long looking up items, coding, … the list could go on so I found this “feature” a pain. As you can see in the below image that I have multiple websites open but you cannot tell if it is multiple windows or multiple tabs.

Firefox1

Now with the picture below you can easily see I have only one window open but four tabs.

Firefox2

To disable tab previews in Firefox you need to do the following:

  • Open the about:config page in a new tab or window
  • Filter for: browser.taskbar.previews.enable
  • By default this is set to true so double click on the true to swap the value to false
  • Your done!

Now for Internet Explorer you have to open the the Internet Options. You will do this by opening Internet Explorer and in the toolbar look for the Tools icon which looks like a gear and then select Internet Options at the very bottom.

IE0

Once in the Internet Options click on the Settings button in the Tabs section.

IE1

Once in the Tabbed Browsing Settings un-check the option that says: Show previews for individual tabs in the taskbar*, then click OK on all the open windows and close out of Internet Explorer.

IE2

Now for Opera we have to open the opera:config page in a new tab or window.

Opera1

Scroll down to a section titled User Prefs and expand this section.

Opera2

Scroll down towards the bottom of the User Prefs section and un-check the check box: “Use Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnails”

Opera3

Once you have unchecked this box scroll down to the bottom of the User Prefs section and click the save button. You will eventually be presented with the following dialog box once complete.

Opera4

That is how you disable tab previews in Windows 7 for popular browsers.

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