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Sophos is an antivirus program provided by UT Southwestern to all students, postdocs, staff and faculty free of charge through a site license. When purchasing a new computer, many times there is a trial version of an antivirus software already loaded. It is recommended that the trial software be removed and Sophos be loaded since the software is free and VPN for XP only works with Sophos antivirus. Users will have access to Sophos for the duration of their active association with UT Southwestern.
Before installing Sophos, confirm there is no other existing anti-virus software on the computer. Installing multiple/competing anti-virus softwares may cause problems. Please contact a Student Computing Committee Representative or the IR Call Center (214-648-7600) before proceeding if not comfortable removing software from a computer.
To download and install Sophos from campus or with VPN off campus:
- Open a browser window.
- Go to the Sophos Download page.
- Select the appropriate operating system installer.
- Select "Save" in the pop-up window.
- Select "Desktop" from the top of the folder section of the Save As window.
- Select "Save." The Sophos installer will now be saved to the Desktop.
- Close all programs except the Download Complete window.
- Select "Run" from the Download Complete window.
- If the User Account Control window appears, select "Allow."
- Select "OK" from the Sophos Client Installation window.
- Set-up will take a few minutes. A pop-up window will appear showing the progress of the download. The installer program will work automatically. Another pop-up window will appear but requires no intervention. A gray shield with green flashing up and down on the left side will appear in the toolbar while installation is in progress. The shield will turn blue when the installation is completed.
- To confirm installation, right-click the blue shield on the task bar in the lower right hand corner of the screen. If "Open Sophos Anti-Virus" is an available option, the installation has completed.
- Selecting "Update Now" will cause Sophos to run updates. By default, Sophos will update every hour.
It is not necessary to configure Sophos beyond its default settings, but it is possible. For assistance with any of the steps above or questions regarding Sophos, please e-mail or call (214-648-7600) the IR Call Center.
