How to Fully Disable Antivirus Software from Filtering Files

Warning This workaround may make your computer or your network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We do not recommend this workaround but are providing this information so that you can implement this workaround at your own discretion. Use this workaround at your own risk.

Note An antivirus program is designed to help protect your computer from viruses. You must not download or open files from sources that you do not trust, visit Web sites that you do not trust, or open e-mail attachments when your antivirus program is disabled.

For additional information about computer viruses, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: If you disable antivirus software programs from scanning or filtering files on your computer, you must also disable the filter drivers. Many issues with file transfering and printing can be resolved by disabling the active filters for antivirus programs. However, simply stopping the services associated with the software is not enough. You must also manually stop the device drivers for those filters. To do this for Windows NT:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Devices.
2. Select the drivers in the Device list, and then click Stop.

NOTE: The actual Symantec filter driver is called "symevent.sys".

To do this for Windows 2000:

1. Right click My Computer and click Properties.
2. Click the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
3. Click the View menu and click Show Hidden Devices.
4. Expand Non-Plug and Play Drivers to find the Antivirus drivers.
5. Right click on the correct driver and click Disable.
6. Restart your computer.

Here are the names of some of the common antivirus program device names by product:

• Inoculan V.4.00 - INO_FLPY and INO_Fltr
• Norton V.5.0 - NAVAP, NAVENG, and NAVEX15 (for Microsoft Exchange Server)
• McAfee V.4.03a - NaiFiltr and NaiFsRec

For more information about a specific antivirus program, please contact the vendor of that software.