In trying to install the Sophos Anti-Virus onto a Windows Vista machine using a stand-alone installer, I ran into an error message towards the end of the installation. An error message popped up that said the following:
Error 3057: There was an unexpected error while attempting to create, repair or delete a user account. Contact your support personnel.
Well, I am the support personnel. Where do I go for help? For once, tech support over the phone actually worked. I called Sophos and they had a fix. It was registry modification, which didn't sit well with me because that usually means it'll affect many users for us. But, that's another problem for another day.
For now, here's the modification:
1. Open Regedit
2. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
3. Open Software
4. Check the Permissions for Software to make sure the Administrators group is explicitly listed and has full permissions. There are a few other keys to check for permissions also. They are:
HKLM>Software>Classes
HKLM>Software>Classes>Interface
HKLM>Software>Classes>Interface>TypeLib
HKLM>Software>Sophos
But, the one that needed to modified for me was the first one.
5. Next, open Computer Management
6. Go to Users
7. Delete any entries that start with "SophosSAU..."
8. Finally, reattempt the reinstallation and it should work now.
Update: Found that if the HKLM>Software registry shows the Everyone group with full permissions and nothing else, then the above fix key works. However, if the permissions already shows the Administrators group, then the problem lies elsewhere.
