Monthly Archives: April 2009

Uninstalling Websense Desktop Client

2 Replies

We’ve been using Websense as our content filtering solution for about a year now, primarily utilizing the Remote Desktop Client in conjunction with the Remote Filtering service to handle our remote users and offices. While Websense is probably the most featured packed content filtering solution, it comes at a cost due to a per user licensing model and heavy hardware requirements.

Barracuda recently entered the content filtering market with their appliance, and after a 30-day demo of their 610 model we decided it was the way to go. While it lacks some of the features of Websense, it will free up 2 servers and $8,000/yr in software renewals which is well worth the initial appliance cost.

The primary downside to the Barracuda was the lack of a Remote Filtering agent, which means our remote users and offices will have to proxy through our central office. With our new 50mb Opteman on the way, and utilizing Frontmotion Firefox ADM to force proxy settings, this won’t be a problem.

However..

Attempting to remove the Websense Desktop Client turned out to be more of a hassle then expected. When attempting to use the same .msi for the uninstall as used for the initial install, I would get “This action is only valid for products that are installed” as seen here:

error

After ensuring the .msi I was using was identical to what was used for the installation, I reinstalled the WDC then proceeded to remove it immediately which worked without issue. With a little GPO help, I was able to push this out to all workstations:

@echo off
REM WDC_Uninstall.bat
REM Copyright (c) 2009 Jared Orzechowski <jaredo at ameritech dot net>
 
if exist "C:\Program Files\Websense\WDC" GOTO :Uninstall
GOTO :End
 
:Uninstall
echo Removing Remote Client Filter
net use Y: \\domain.com\DFS\Client_installs\CPMClient /Y
start /wait msiexec /i Y:\CPMClient.msi REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=veums PASSPHRASE=somepass REBOOT=NO /qn
"C:\Program Files\Websense\WDC\wdc.exe" -ds somepass
sc stop WebsenseDesktopClient
start /wait msiexec /x{14D74337-01C2-4F8F-B44B-67FC613E5B1F} /qn /norestart
net use Y: /DELETE /Y
rmdir /S /Q "C:\Program Files\Websense\WDC"
GOTO :End
 
:End
echo Operation Complete..