Getting rid of Sophos

I installed Sapos a short time ago and have noticed a slowdown in m iMac. I have nearly 2008 model running ElCapitan 10.11.6. When I think that I have deleted it it shows up again when I restart my Mac. I notice that on the upper Safari menu bar there is an S in a shield. Maybe this is there problem. Please help.

I think Saphos comes with an uninstaller. You may have to reinstall to run the uninstaller. Perhaps someone who has run Saphos can chime in here.

First, the AV software package is "Sophos" not Saphos. Regardless of the spelling, follow the uninstallation instructions given here.

earley said:

I installed Sapos a short time ago and have noticed a slowdown in m iMac.

Click to expand...

Lots of users have. See:

Macintosh OS X Slowdown Solutions
http://www.macattorney.com/sd.html

earley said:

I have nearly 2008 model running ElCapitan 10.11.6. When I think that I have deleted it it shows up again when I restart my Mac. I notice that on the upper Safari menu bar there is an S in a shield. Maybe this is there problem. Please help.

Click to expand...

It can be tricky removing Sophos. Here are comprehensive instructions for doing so:

How to remove Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac
https://community.sophos.com/kb/en-us/120838

Thanks to all for your help. I got rid of SOPHOS once and for all.

Question: I have been told that an iMac running on the latest OS doesn't need an anti virus. Is this right?

earley, that's a great question with differing opinions. There are NO viruses in the wild at this moment for OS X, and there really hasn't been in a while. So I believe that there is NO need for A/V for Macs. There is, however, other malware out there than viruses. There are hijackers for your browser and some malicious ransomeware that has used Java and Flash to lock up Macs. I use Ghostery (either the Mac App Store or ghostery.com) to block everything, including trackers, ads, popups, hijackers and malware, and then if anything gets through, I have malwarebytes (malwarebytes.com) to remove it. I don't download from download.com, cnet.com, softonic.com or any other "aggregator" sites that have software. I stick to Mac App Store and developer websites I trust or which are recommended by people I trust. I don't use torrents, stay away from pirate sites and don't do porn.

If you surf safely and do the ghostery/malwarebytes approach, you should be safe.

Thanks for your input Jake. I will take your advice.

earley said:

Thanks to all for your help. I got rid of SOPHOS once and for all.

Question: I have been told that an iMac running on the latest OS doesn't need an anti virus. Is this right?

Click to expand...

If you do a search, you will find several "virus" discussion threads here. There is even a current one that folks were contributing to just a few days ago.

If you have a fairly recent Macintosh, running the latest version of OS X, there is currently no Malware (not just viruses), that can infect your Macintosh that you need to be worred about. None.

OS X has its own built-in anti-malware programs, both for your Mac as a whole, and also for your Web browser:

XProtect/File Quarantine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xprotect
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201940

Safari, Firefox and Chrome all have Google's "Safe Browsing" technology built-in.
Safe Browsing warns users to stay away from poisoned Web sites, drive-by downloads, and phishing sites.
http://www.macworld.com/article/137094/2008/11/safari_safe_browsing.html

Unlike Windows, there have only been a handful of nasties for OS X. Generally these have been limited in distribution when they appear, they usually only show up in odd places like illegal file-sharing networks, or in the far east, and they are patched fairly quickly. Even when the press says that "hundreds of thousands of Mac users have been infected," it's usually impossible to find an actual first hand account of anyone being infected.

There will, of course, be new malware for the Macintosh in the future. Not a flood of it, but one or two new nasties every few months. And when they show up, I'm sure that you will hear about it here, and you can take steps to avoid them then. But I don't think that you will actually need anti-virus software to avoid them.

One thing that has become prevalent is adware. Adware isn't at all malicious, but it is terribly annoying. You can remove adware if you contract it with:

Malwarebytes/Mac (free)
https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/mac/

Thanks Randy, I installed the anti malware as you suggest. From your comments, and others here, I probably don't need anything else.