I've been wanting to make this post for so long. I spent 2 hours putting this together. Please bare through my frustrations and I personally think this post I'm making is important if given to the right people because I describe the reason why I strongly believe Norton is losing some market share. One thing I will say is that at least this version is much better then the old resource hogging ones.
I was previously a fan of another AntiVirus/Firewall security suite program where you can set it to a mode where it asks you if you want to allow this or that and can backup the settings for future use. But they kept having bug issues that made users experience long slow windows startups. So as much as I always disliked Norton, I thought, "It's free and I haven't used Norton in 8 years, maybe they are better now, so I'll try it since Comcast gives us free license for Norton Security Suite." I got to be honest, I'm in the IT world and where I come free, we are not fans of Norton to say the least... to put it nicely.
I've been using it for maybe a year now and it's exactly as I remember it. This program just loves to give out false positives! And when it finds them it bugs you to death! After scanning through the tons of options, I finally found the right setting to configure it to no longer Automatically resolve threats because it would sometimes forever delete something without even giving me a chance to restore. After plenty of Google searches I see I'm not the only one frustrated about that. Keep in mind I'm always the one to search, research, and try to resolve issues myself before asking on a forum for help.
...
Why no "Ignore" option in "Action Required?" Why still bringing up files in scan excluded dirs?
I'd like to know why the programmers do not put a, "ignore this file, I know it's safe" choice, like other security software? Action Required window Pops up and the only option is "Delete" then "ok." 4 times a day this screen comes up and I have to hit "finish" then the "Are you sure, there are still unresolved threats" window comes up and I have to hit "yes." Every reboot it comes up. And of course it's only a matter of time before I accidentally hit "apply" which is right next to/above the "finish" button! Why would you do that? If this were a plane they would probably put the, "eject" button right over the "auto-pilot" button. I finally accidentally deleted the file which is not on the restore file section because Norton for some reason felt to immediately permanently delete it! I've actually got pretty good at maneuvering through a GUI filled with virtually hundreds of options in the tabs that could be organized so much better. Please for Gods sake get your programmers to make this GUI user friendly. I imagine the non-techy computer users being so confused. The "Tasks" and "settings" separate tabs can be confusing to find and configure what you need. Reminds of of that ryme, the cat did this the mouse did that because this did that and that did this that the rat in the hat ate. Or however it goes. Right now I am going through it in order to describe to you what the problems are and I'm looking for the area where you restore the files seen as threats, that Norton deleted. (rhetorical question)-> Is it in the Settings/AntiVirus area? Or is it in the Tasks area? It's not in Tasks "Restore Files" because that restores your backup and is under the backup header. OK it's in the "TASKS/View Security History" area. But wait, for some reason Norton may have deleted the file right away without even giving you a chance to restore. It's not even quarantined. It's gone! Why? My brother just got a new Laptop, he has comcast too, I had to walk him through a bunch of tabs and settings to so that Norton would hopefully ignore certain programs. This is usually easy to do in other programs but in Norton the GUI is just not well organized in a user friendly manner. I finally had to set Norton to to not scan my Firefox downloads folder and shut off, "Remove Infected Compressed Files" which is in "Tasks/AntiVirus/Scans and Risks/Computer Scans" then add programs and directories under "Tasks/AntiVirus/Scans and Risks/Scan Exclusions" both Scan areas including Real Time ." That's a mouth full right? Exactly. So anyway, even with all that set, "Action Required it still bugging me! Why? You're not allowed to touch the folder or this file but you are!
Its kind of funny that the forum here seems to be similar to the program. So many forum sections that people are constantly mistakenly posting in the wrong area and moderators are moving posts. I'm glad I'm not a moderator on this forum. I don't know why you don't use a nice looking forum similar to vBulleton or phpbb. This forum looks like those simple page forums when this is a very professional big company program. The forum software here just doesn't reflect.
Here's one for you. I wanted to install EverQuest 2 again to play. This is a well known game played all over the world. Can you believe that Norton prevented it from running and screwed up the install, then after I got it installed by putting Norton to Sleep, I turned it back on normal, I couldn't update the game with Norton on because it kept locking up a character config file! I can even provide you with a screenshot of the first issue. It detected EQ2 running from the CD as a threat. Yes you are going to tell me it's best to set Norton to sleep while installing games but still this should not be happening. I can better understand Norton locking up some unknown file with barely any users but not EverQuest 2, one of the top ten Massively Multiplayer Online Games.
Attempting to shut down Norton's nagging abilities...
I shut down Heauristic Protection because after some google searches I found false positives are sometimes triggered under that. I also see something under "Signiture Exclusions" where I can disable more stuff but with hundreds of options, even with subjects, it's tough to tell what to shut off to get Norton to stop.
Who is Norton for?
For the average user who is not too computer techie and doesn't use many programs like I do, Norton probably works well. My friend says he never has a problem with it. But for someone who needs to configure anything in Norton it is a nightmare. Go here, go there, then go to this tab, go to that one. I've been on many forums and review sites and I can tell you without a doubt that Norton is losing a ton of potential users and market share do to it's setup and false positives. Not to mention it's past issues some years back when it was almost impossible to clean uninstall Norton and people ended up having to wipe and reinstall windows.
So anyway, I've ordered a new Solid State Drive and I'm doing a complete Windows 7 64bit install and I've decided to never touch Norton again but instead go to one of the 3 top free AntiVirus programs. Yes I will unfortunately lose the all in one suite program in using the free version but it's better then the temperamental situation I have now. But I'll keep Norton on my mother's laptop since all she uses is email and web, Norton leaves her alone.But I thought in making this post I could possibly be of some help. At least put a "ignore" action option and don't put sensitive big decisions buttons together.
I reccommend you go to Cnet and read the reviews there and compare the tops. This has been for many years. You'll see that Norton has been missing a lot of potential users.
Thanks Hugh. I apologize for volatility of my post coming out of frustration… (Takes a deep breath…) I’m back. On the new PC setup running Win7 on an SSD. I’m going to take your advice and recommendations. Though I wish Comcast were allowing full free versions of your trial recommendations. I didn’t know Comcast wasn’t handing out the latest version. I just assumed… I guess that makes sense since it’s almost to good to be true to get the suite for free with internet subscription. They probably assume the cost savings is worth it since most users wouldn’t necessarily need the latest version since the virus definitions are still being updated anyway. I do really wish there was an “ignore” option on the drop-down menu. Thanks Again.
I've been wanting to make this post for so long. I spent 2 hours putting this together. Please bare through my frustrations and I personally think this post I'm making is important if given to the right people because I describe the reason why I strongly believe Norton is losing some market share. One thing I will say is that at least this version is much better then the old resource hogging ones.
I was previously a fan of another AntiVirus/Firewall security suite program where you can set it to a mode where it asks you if you want to allow this or that and can backup the settings for future use. But they kept having bug issues that made users experience long slow windows startups. So as much as I always disliked Norton, I thought, "It's free and I haven't used Norton in 8 years, maybe they are better now, so I'll try it since Comcast gives us free license for Norton Security Suite." I got to be honest, I'm in the IT world and where I come free, we are not fans of Norton to say the least... to put it nicely.
I've been using it for maybe a year now and it's exactly as I remember it. This program just loves to give out false positives! And when it finds them it bugs you to death! After scanning through the tons of options, I finally found the right setting to configure it to no longer Automatically resolve threats because it would sometimes forever delete something without even giving me a chance to restore. After plenty of Google searches I see I'm not the only one frustrated about that. Keep in mind I'm always the one to search, research, and try to resolve issues myself before asking on a forum for help.
...
Why no "Ignore" option in "Action Required?" Why still bringing up files in scan excluded dirs?
I'd like to know why the programmers do not put a, "ignore this file, I know it's safe" choice, like other security software? Action Required window Pops up and the only option is "Delete" then "ok." 4 times a day this screen comes up and I have to hit "finish" then the "Are you sure, there are still unresolved threats" window comes up and I have to hit "yes." Every reboot it comes up. And of course it's only a matter of time before I accidentally hit "apply" which is right next to/above the "finish" button! Why would you do that? If this were a plane they would probably put the, "eject" button right over the "auto-pilot" button. I finally accidentally deleted the file which is not on the restore file section because Norton for some reason felt to immediately permanently delete it! I've actually got pretty good at maneuvering through a GUI filled with virtually hundreds of options in the tabs that could be organized so much better. Please for Gods sake get your programmers to make this GUI user friendly. I imagine the non-techy computer users being so confused. The "Tasks" and "settings" separate tabs can be confusing to find and configure what you need. Reminds of of that ryme, the cat did this the mouse did that because this did that and that did this that the rat in the hat ate. Or however it goes. Right now I am going through it in order to describe to you what the problems are and I'm looking for the area where you restore the files seen as threats, that Norton deleted. (rhetorical question)-> Is it in the Settings/AntiVirus area? Or is it in the Tasks area? It's not in Tasks "Restore Files" because that restores your backup and is under the backup header. OK it's in the "TASKS/View Security History" area. But wait, for some reason Norton may have deleted the file right away without even giving you a chance to restore. It's not even quarantined. It's gone! Why? My brother just got a new Laptop, he has comcast too, I had to walk him through a bunch of tabs and settings to so that Norton would hopefully ignore certain programs. This is usually easy to do in other programs but in Norton the GUI is just not well organized in a user friendly manner. I finally had to set Norton to to not scan my Firefox downloads folder and shut off, "Remove Infected Compressed Files" which is in "Tasks/AntiVirus/Scans and Risks/Computer Scans" then add programs and directories under "Tasks/AntiVirus/Scans and Risks/Scan Exclusions" both Scan areas including Real Time ." That's a mouth full right? Exactly. So anyway, even with all that set, "Action Required it still bugging me! Why? You're not allowed to touch the folder or this file but you are!
Its kind of funny that the forum here seems to be similar to the program. So many forum sections that people are constantly mistakenly posting in the wrong area and moderators are moving posts. I'm glad I'm not a moderator on this forum. I don't know why you don't use a nice looking forum similar to vBulleton or phpbb. This forum looks like those simple page forums when this is a very professional big company program. The forum software here just doesn't reflect.
Here's one for you. I wanted to install EverQuest 2 again to play. This is a well known game played all over the world. Can you believe that Norton prevented it from running and screwed up the install, then after I got it installed by putting Norton to Sleep, I turned it back on normal, I couldn't update the game with Norton on because it kept locking up a character config file! I can even provide you with a screenshot of the first issue. It detected EQ2 running from the CD as a threat. Yes you are going to tell me it's best to set Norton to sleep while installing games but still this should not be happening. I can better understand Norton locking up some unknown file with barely any users but not EverQuest 2, one of the top ten Massively Multiplayer Online Games.
Attempting to shut down Norton's nagging abilities...
I shut down Heauristic Protection because after some google searches I found false positives are sometimes triggered under that. I also see something under "Signiture Exclusions" where I can disable more stuff but with hundreds of options, even with subjects, it's tough to tell what to shut off to get Norton to stop.
Who is Norton for?
For the average user who is not too computer techie and doesn't use many programs like I do, Norton probably works well. My friend says he never has a problem with it. But for someone who needs to configure anything in Norton it is a nightmare. Go here, go there, then go to this tab, go to that one. I've been on many forums and review sites and I can tell you without a doubt that Norton is losing a ton of potential users and market share do to it's setup and false positives. Not to mention it's past issues some years back when it was almost impossible to clean uninstall Norton and people ended up having to wipe and reinstall windows.
So anyway, I've ordered a new Solid State Drive and I'm doing a complete Windows 7 64bit install and I've decided to never touch Norton again but instead go to one of the 3 top free AntiVirus programs. Yes I will unfortunately lose the all in one suite program in using the free version but it's better then the temperamental situation I have now. But I'll keep Norton on my mother's laptop since all she uses is email and web, Norton leaves her alone.But I thought in making this post I could possibly be of some help. At least put a "ignore" action option and don't put sensitive big decisions buttons together.
I reccommend you go to Cnet and read the reviews there and compare the tops. This has been for many years. You'll see that Norton has been missing a lot of potential users.
Glad you are back ....
Not sure what you want to ignore but there is an ignore feature in 2011 for the popups you get if you turn off certain functions like email scanning for example.
To the left of the slider control is the name of the function -- hover the mouse pointer over that and you get a balloon and inside that is the word Ignore; if you click on that it will stop the popup warnings for that function.