Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[Calls]

Vista Home Premium 32 bit Vista SP2

DSL Connection

NIS 2010 17.8.0.5

I ran a manual full system scan this morning and it only scanned like 217,000 files. I know I have way more files than that on my computer

Any sense on why it didi not scan more files than that?

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

Hi Calls,

This is normal. With Norton Insight there are certain files with known digital signatures which do not need to be scanned every time but will be checked again if there is a change to the program where it will again be compared to a known good source and digital signature.

You can see what percentage of trusted files you have on your system and even the list of trusted files by clicking on Application Ratings from the main NIS window.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes.

Allen

[Tywin7]

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AllenM wrote:

Hi Calls,

This is normal. With Norton Insight there are certain files with known digital signatures which do not need to be scanned every time but will be checked again if there is a change to the program where it will again be compared to a known good source and digital signature.

You can see what percentage of trusted files you have on your system and even the list of trusted files by clicking on Application Ratings from the main NIS window.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes.

Allen

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As Allen says, Norton skips known safe files.  This include unmodified Windows file, unmodified trusted program files.

Optional steps. For maximum security, I recommend you to make sure the following settings are set to the below specifications:

1. Open your Norton GUI and click on settings.
   
   
   
   





2. Computer settings: In the computer settings, set intelligent file skipping to "off". Turn on Microsoft automatic scan. Also set the boot time protection to "aggressive". Doing so will make sure that your Norton software will load before any potential malware.
   
   

[SendOfJive Norton Fighter · Accepted solution]

Hi Calls,

Open Norton Security History and select to show Scan Results.  Select the scan you are concerned about and click More Details.  You will see a small + sign next to Total Items Scanned.  Click this and you will get a breakdown of the various files.  The last two categories, Trusted Files and Skipped Files, are not included in the total count of Total Items Scanned.  Add these to your total to get the full number of files that Norton processed during the scan.  This may be closer to the number of files you expected to see.  The number of trusted files and skipped files will vary from scan to scan based on a number of factors, so no two scans will ever have the same file counts.

The lavishly illustrated settings suggestions offered by Tywin7 really do not have any bearing on the question you were asking.

[Calls]

Is that why when I installed NIS 2010 and after updating, when I ran a full system scan the number of files scanned was around 639,000 because files had not yet been "determined"?

[AllenM Norton Fighter]

Hi Calls,

Essentially yes. But as SendOfJive said the number of files from one scan to the next is going to change and you should not be concerned about the exact number of files which are scanned each time.

Best wishes.

Allen

[Calls]

thanks all

[Calls]

by the way, I have full system scans scheduled several times per week, and it does scan a large number of files each time

[Calls]

Interestingly, when I run a manual full system scan logged on via my limited rights user account, manula full system scans always stop at around 217,000 files scanned

Even when I add the skipped and trusted files, it still doesn't come close to the number of files scanned when a scheduled full system scan runs

Just wondering why it stops short

[Tywin7]

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SendOfJive wrote:

Hi Calls,

Open Norton Security History and select to show Scan Results.  Select the scan you are concerned about and click More Details.  You will see a small + sign next to Total Items Scanned.  Click this and you will get a breakdown of the various files.  The last two categories, Trusted Files and Skipped Files, are not included in the total count of Total Items Scanned.  Add these to your total to get the full number of files that Norton processed during the scan.  This may be closer to the number of files you expected to see.  The number of trusted files and skipped files will vary from scan to scan based on a number of factors, so no two scans will ever have the same file counts.

The lavishly illustrated settings suggestions offered by Tywin7 really do not have any bearing on the question you were asking.

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I thought NIS was glitching. Soz about that.