I've been using Norton Antivirus since 2005 (at least). Recently (say, within the last month or two), scans have started identifying viruses buried deep in my archived Netscape mail Inbox files from 2006. Now, these files (and the viruses they contain) have been untouched on my hard drive for years. Question 1: Why all of a sudden is Norton Antivirus complaining about them?
I've added the folders that contain these files to the list of folders Norton should skip (i.e., not scan). However, every day Norton pops up the list of identified threats and makes me close it out. The threats in its list are all now contained in folders Norton is configured to ignore. But Norton AntiVirus is still complaining about them. Question 2: How can I get Norton to stop complaining about threats in folders it is configured not to scan?
Note: I do not want to delete those old inbox files--they contain a lot of email I want to keep. I am careful not to click any attachments, but the files are way too big for me to go through and systematically delete the virus-infested spam emails by hand, and Norton AntiVirus reports "remove failed" for each of the threats it finds in these files. So I intend to "let sleeping dogs lie" and leave these files alone. I just want Norton AntiVirus to do the same!
Have you recently updated from an old version of Norton to a newer version? I believe some of the older versions excluded scans of .dbx files by default, while the newer ones do not.
Sorry, I misread what you had typed. I thought you had said you were using NAV 2005, but you meant you were using Norton NAV's since 2005, but not necessarily using NAV 2005 now.
I can see how my first post might be easy to misread. To clarify, I'm running version 18.1.0.37, which I think is the current version. My operating system is WIndows XP Pro (Version 2002), with Service Pack 3 installed.
I think my problem might be (at least partially) due to the fact that the threats were found in files that--at the time they were found--were in folders not excluded from scans. I have now listed those folders as folders Norton AntiVirus should skip (not scan), but maybe it's too late since Norton AntiVIrus already found them.
In the "Action Required: Norton AntiVirus has detected threats that require your attention" window, each found threat is listed with the notation: "Remove failed." I'm only offered two options for each found threat: I can either "rescan" or "get help." Rescanning doesn't work ("remove" still fails, putting back where I started), and "get help" just launches me to a web page with a bit more detailed description of the threat. What I want is an option to "ignore" or "clear threat" but those options are not listed.
Is there some way I can make the program stop telling me about these threats. The risk is that I will become habituated to ignoring this pop-up window and eventually maybe I will end up ignoring a real threat by accident as a result. Norton AntiVirius is becoming "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." To avoid this problem, I need a way to silence it about the threats I don't care about.
-Ray
PS: I haven't taken any action to update or upgrade the program, which is why I thought it was odd that all of a sudden it started complaining about 4-year-old files. But maybe there is some kind of automatic update that triggered this change in its behavior?
I've been using Norton Antivirus since 2005 (at least). Recently (say, within the last month or two), scans have started identifying viruses buried deep in my archived Netscape mail Inbox files from 2006. Now, these files (and the viruses they contain) have been untouched on my hard drive for years. Question 1: Why all of a sudden is Norton Antivirus complaining about them?
I've added the folders that contain these files to the list of folders Norton should skip (i.e., not scan). However, every day Norton pops up the list of identified threats and makes me close it out. The threats in its list are all now contained in folders Norton is configured to ignore. But Norton AntiVirus is still complaining about them. Question 2: How can I get Norton to stop complaining about threats in folders it is configured not to scan?
Note: I do not want to delete those old inbox files--they contain a lot of email I want to keep. I am careful not to click any attachments, but the files are way too big for me to go through and systematically delete the virus-infested spam emails by hand, and Norton AntiVirus reports "remove failed" for each of the threats it finds in these files. So I intend to "let sleeping dogs lie" and leave these files alone. I just want Norton AntiVirus to do the same!
Thanks! As it turned out, between the time I originally posted and the time you provided the solution, my installation of Norton AntiVirus started crashing a lot, necessitating an uninstall and re-install, which I just completed. Everything seems to be working now.