Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows: manually updating machines using the IDE files

Issue
During a malware outbreak, you need to manually update your endpoint computers with the latest IDE files.

Note: this procedure is for emergency use only. If your endpoint computers are connecting to the network and are scheduled to download updates from a CID automatically, the next update will remove the files you are about to add using this procedure.

Sophos product and version
Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows 2000+

Operating system
Microsoft Windows 2000+

What to do

On each of your endpoint computers:

Step 1. Find out which version of Sophos you are running

1. Right-click the Sophos shield and select 'Open Sophos Anti-Virus'.
2. Click 'View Product Information'
3. Under 'Software', find 'Detection Data' and make a note of the version number.
4. In the same section, find 'Detection Identities' and make a note of that number as well.

Step 2. Download the IDE files relevant to the version

1. In a web browser, go to http://www.sophos.com/downloads/ide/index.html.
2. Download the IDEs files for the version of Threat Detection Data that you noted earlier. Select either the ZIP files or the self-extracting exe file depending on your needs.

Step 3. Install the IDE files

If you downloaded the ZIP file:

1. Open the downloaded IDE files package
2. Extract the IDE files to the Sophos installation directory:
   C:\Program Files\Sophos\Sophos Anti-Virus
3. Click Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services
4. Restart the 'Sophos Anti-Virus' Service.

If you downloaded the self-extracting exe:

1. Copy the IDE package file to the Sophos installation directory:
   C:\Program Files\Sophos\Sophos Anti-Virus
2. Double click the file to extract the IDEs
3. Click Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services
4. Restart the 'Sophos Anti-Virus' Service.

Step 4. Ensure that the IDEs have been installed

1. Right-click the Sophos shield and select 'Open Sophos Anti-Virus'
2. Go to 'View Product Information' and ensure that the 'Detection Identites' matches the 'Number of IDEs' for the package that you downloaded from Sophos.com.