Product & version number: Norton 360. 24.12.9725 (build 24.12.9725.0)
OS details: Windows 7 Professional
What is the error message you are seeing? In the Taskbar Notification area, it shows a red cross against the Norton icon, and if I hover the pointer over it a red screen appears saying “You are unprotected”. If I click on it to open the main Norton Screen, it’s all green and fine. Which is correct?
If you have any supporting screenshots, please add them:
Hello. This is a known prompt to have you run Smart Scan. Run it so the notice will disappear. Please note that when the scan completes you most likely will be presented with a “solution” for whatever issues the scan finds. More likely than not a sell-up. Review the results carefully and decide what is best for you. My suggestion is ignore the sell-up. Most scanning tools are nothing but snake oil from my decades of experience with them. Don’t use them, the risk of your device becoming no usable by using them is my justification for that.
An added note of caution as well. Having a very long unsupported version of Windows front facing the internet is a serious security issue. If your hardware supports Windows 10 I would upgrade to be safe. Microsoft states they are killing off Windows 10 October 2025, I believe that is going to bite them where the sun doesn’t shine in the long term. Update to Windows 10 if you possibly can do so.
Hi @Julian_Swift ,
I see that you have two contradictory pieces of information: “You’re still protected” and “you are unprotected”!
I also see in your screenshot the mention: “Set up Protection 2/4”. I think that (part of) the solution is at this level !
In addition to the elements reported by @SoulAsylum , I invite you to finish setting up your protection and tell us if this solves the problem.
Have a good day.
Guillaume
Had this same thing on original auto install October time. There was also an error in Windows security error where Norton takes over those items. I think the version I originally had was a pre many times release. Somewhere there was a REMOVE button which brought up NRnR app. which came up with error. Removed Norton thru’ Windows remove. During this time, trying to open a browser just sat there ‘Loading’ but never did. Once removed, instant access thru. brower, from Norton account, ‘Install on new device’ dowloaded a setup file, ran & installed, no issues, could access internet OK, the internals of the app itself were completely different from the auto update., Noticed that even now, the internal structure seems to change fairly regular…
Thanks for taking the time to reply SoulAsylum. Unfortunately, I have a desktop running Windows 7, but it’s not compatible with Windows 10 or later, and a laptop running Windows 10, which is not compatible with Windows 11. Just at the moment I’m not in a position to replace either of them, but your note of caution has sharpened my awareness, so I will at least replace the desktop as soon as I can.
Thank you for taking the time to reply, Guillaume1024. I hadn’t realised that I had only set up 2 out of the 4 protection measures, so thanks for pointing that out. I think Norton could make it a bit clearer, but at least I understand now.
Thank you, mgirons, for taking the time to reply. I have other issues with Norton that I will ask about on a separate thread. Some of these issues I had periodically, but since the last major update from a couple of months ago, I have them all the time. From your comments, it seems that I’m not the only one.
Thanks dforrest for your reply. It would appear that the answers are “no” to the first, and “don’t know” to the other two! Thank goodness we have people like your good self who are willing to help.
Thank you for your comments, bjm, adding to Guillaume1024’s post. I wonder if it would be better if Norton flagged up an orange notification warning in the system tray if things like Safe Web are disabled. As it was a red notification, I thought it might be potentially catastrophically serious.
