Hi
Is there a way to disable all idle time activities in NIS 2011?
I know that disabling idle time scan, only disables the full one.
I need to turn off this idle state for good, not just one day like I believe silent mode does.
And I need to stop the insight optimizer from running for good too.
And what is the "Norton insight" in the norton tasks?
This is just too much load on the hard drive.
Thanks
You can disable idle time optimizer via
Settings - General - Norton tasks - Idle time optimizer - Off
As far as I know, you cant disable quick scans on pc, but they are by default off, if you run on laptop without external power.
Thanks.
What about the other idle time activies?
There is a task call: Norton Insight
Would someone tell me what this is and how to disable it?
Hi Jerry20,
Why do you want to disable Norton Insight? It is one of the most important feature in NIS.
Thanks,
Ziaul
Because when I leave the computer downloading for a while and obviously norton goes into its idle state, and I come back, I find the HD led on or flashing all the time.
When I check the norton tasks, I see "norton insight " running for while.
So can this thing be disabled?
Can Idle state be totally disabled?
Can Idle tasks be totally disabled?
Hi Jerry20,
You will get a better description of Norton Insight here.
You can disable it from the advance view, but it is not advisable to do so, you will lose great amount of protection.
Thanks,
Ziaul
Are you sure this is the same "norton insight" task?
I 've been trying for a long while, and I think I disabled it, yet I saw the 'norton insight' task run.
I could be wrong though.
Thanks
Hi Jerry20,
It is better to wait for someone more knowledgeable to answer your question.
Thanks,
Ziaul
I have the insight protection OFF and still I see the task running "norton insight" and hard drive led flashing like crazy.
Is it not possible to stop these idle time activites or tasks?
Any help?
Jerry,
On the main interface in 2011. On the right hand side, the first clickable slide bar is for Insight Protection. You can turn it off right there by clicking on it. If you have it passworded it will ask for your password to do this.
As far as the idle time scans, You can get to it by selecting settings on the top of the main interface menu,( i know in 2012 it is listed under the general tab), i forget which tab it is listed under for 2011, but I believe it is the third tab down. What you are looking for is Listed as ( Tasks Delay, Resume Delay, Idle Time Out, Idle Time Out delay, Norton Task Notification) They will all be grouped together, and by clicking on them you will get your options for that particular selection by moving the slider. You can also select for the Insight Scan to have a higher trust level if you wish, which will speed up the scans alot. You can change the trust level for your Insight Scan in the Applications Rating window. You can get to it by selecting Application Ratings which is an option just to the right of your scan now button on the main menu interface. When you select it a different window will come up, with the Insight Scan options on the right hand side just below the graphics area. By clicking the small slide bar you can change your trust levels for your scans. You can also change your trust levels in the computer scans section in the Settings menu. I hope that this helps you some or that you have already found this info. If you need more info, take a look at the Norton Help pages, they have a large amount of walk through steps and screen shots, also you can Message with someone if needed.
Thanks for your reply, but it still doesn't answer my quiestion:
How to permanently disable any idle task? Or at least this Norton Insight?
I've gone through all the settings but didn't find anything to do that.
That's very disappointing.
Hi Jerry20:
The following settings will prevent most background tasks from running in NIS 2011 except Norton Insight and the daily Quick Scan (which cannot be disabled from the settings).
Settings | Computer Settings | Computer Scans | Idle Time Scans | OFF
Settings | Computer Settings | Automatic LiveUpdate | OFF
Settings | Miscellaneous Settings | Idle Time Optimizer | OFF
Settings | Miscellaneous Settings | Norton Community Watch | OFF
Even after you turn off these features, you may still have a partially completed Idle Time Optimizer defrag or full Idle Time scan that will continue to run every time your system goes into idle mode until the tasks finally run to completion. You should run a manual LiveUpdate at least once a day and a manual Full System Scan once a week to make sure that you don't severely compromise your PC's security.
If your computer is slowing down while you're browsing the web you can try disabling the following as well.
Settings | Computer Settings | Insight Protection | OFF
Settings | Web Settings | Identity Safe | OFF
Settings | Miscellaneous Settings | Automatic Download of New Version | OFF
Settings | Miscellaneous Settings | Special Offer Notification | OFF
Note that turning off Insight Protection does NOT disable the Norton Insight task. When Insight Protection is off, it just means that NIS will use the local virus definitions on your hard drive for a scan and will not check the Symantec server for the latest definitions in the "cloud" that have been discovered since your last LiveUpdate. The Norton Insight task cannot be turned off and checks for the latest trust ratings for applications (similar to what happens when you go to Peformance | Application Rating and run a manual update for your trust ratings). Only Symantec can tell you why they won't let users disable the Norton Insight task - I certainly don't have clue and I think it's a terrible idea.
I have all the above settings turned off on my PC except my weekly idle times scans because I have a slow dial-up Internet connection at home and don't have the bandwidth to run all these background tasks. I understand there's a new feature in NIS 2012 called bandwidth metering (see here) that works with mobile broadband devices but I still use NIS 2011 and don't know if this new feature can be used with dial-up modems as well.
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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 6.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
Thank you very much for your help.
Unfortunately I already have the same settings, but everytime I let my pc go into this Dreadful idle time, the hard drive keeps running like crazy.
I agree that it is a terrible idea that there are task that can't be disabled. And it is just as bad that you can't stop this horrible idle state for good.
I think it's possible to protect a computer without damaging its hard drive through exessive use.
Hi Jerry20:
The next time you see your hard drive grinding, open the Norton Tasks window in NIS 2011 (Performance | Norton Tasks) and click your mouse pointer at the far right of the top graphic (i.e., in the area of recent activity where the time scale says "min"). NIS will tell you exatcly what processes were running in the pop-up window. If NIS background tasks are the cause, the graph will be yellow and the the process will list ccSvcHst.exe (the Symantec Service Framework). If you look at the list of Norton Tasks in the bottom panel of this window, the Last Run column will confirm the last date/time of the specific background Norton task that was running. If the graph is blue then some other background task like the Windows Disk Defragmenter (dfrgntfs.exe) or the Windows Indexing Service could be the culprit. There are tabs at the top left of the graphic so that you can check both CPU and Memory activity.
Do you have any other security software installed on your computer (e.g., Spybot Search & Destroy, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, etc.)? They may be performing background scans or running in real-time protection mode and fooling NIS into thinking that your computer is being attacked by malware because of the rapid disk read/writes, causing a rapid increase in CPU usage by the Symantec Service Framework ccSvcHst.exe.
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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 6.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
I don't have any other software running when this happens.
I check norton tasks and check the date, and I find this dreadful "Norton Insight" task.
I think that silent mode disables that but unfortunately it is in effect for a maximum of 1 day.
I hope if there is a registry key or something that disables that.
Jerry20:
I don't know of any way of disabling the Norton Insight task, short of turning on Silent Mode as you suggested. The Norton Insight task won't run during system idles if your computer is running on battery power, but that isn't a practical long term solution.
On my computer, a Quick Idle scan takes about 40 sec. and a Norton Insight scan requires about 3 or 4 minutes (even less if my computer is disconnected from the Internet). Is your Norton Insight task running longer than 4 minutes, or is a 4 minute idle scan still causing a problem on your PC?
There's probably some registry tweak or file rename that will permanently disable this task, but if you don't keep the trust ratings for your applications up-to-date then File Insight will start blocking all sorts of software installations because it doesn't trust the installation file (see screenshot below), and the number of applications that your NIS protection monitors in real-time (i.e., does not trust and assumes is a potential threat) will increase over time.
I'm not sure if I understand what you mean when you say "I don't have any other software running when this happens." Does this mean that you aren't running browsers, word processors, etc. (i.e., there are no programs listed in the Application tab of the Windows Task Manager), or do you mean that you've actually turned off every Windows background task (e.g., Windows Update, WIndows DIsk Defragmenter, Windows Indexing Serivce) and every auto-updater in third-party software like Java, iTunes, etc. that could be intermittently runnning background tasks during system idles at the same time as your Norton Insight task?
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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 6.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
Yes, it takes about qurater an hour.
When I leave the computer downloading, while this task is using the HD like crazy, I don't really feel comfortable.
When I see this behavioiur, I shut down all other programs including the download and still find the HD led flashing. No defragment or update or anything.
I think there should be settings for the advance users, to customize such behaviour.
Hi Jerry20:
I agree with you, it would be nice if users had a bit more control over how their Norton Insight scans were scheduled.
I would only be concerned if every single Norton Insight scan required 15 minutes. I ran two manual scans consecutively from the Norton Tasks window today over a 56 Kbps dial-up connection (Performance | Norton Tasks, then clicked the Start button to the left of the Norton Insight task - see screenshot below). The first scan took 11:42 minutes (it was more than 2 days since my last scan) but the 2nd scan only took 1:13 minutes.
If you're still concerned, check the % Trusted files on your system. Go to Performance | Application Ratings and a new Norton Insight scan should start automatically (click the Refresh button in the top right corner if the scan doesn't start on its own). The Scan Performance Profile and % of Trusted files affects how quickly NIS runs computer scans for malware, but doesn't affect how quickly your Norton Insight scan runs. Select All Files from the dropdown list and wait for the Insight scan to run to completion - if less than approx 80% or 85% of all your files are Trusted then the Untrusted Files list might display some obsolete software on your system that could be updated or uninstalled.
You might want to run a One Click Support automated support session (Support | Get Support) just to see if Norton can detect and repair any common problems with your NIS 2011 installation. It might also be possible that an upgrade to the new NIS 2012 (Support | New Version Check) results in a faster Norton Insight scan. If you have a dial-up or metered (limited time allowance) Internet conncection you can try the new Metered Bandwidth feature in NIS 2012 (Settings | Network | Network Security Settings | Metered Broadband Mode | Configure) and choose "Critical Updates Only" or "No Traffic" to control some Norton background tasks. This might be preferable to turning off all idle times tasks in your settings.
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Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 * NIS 2011 v. 18.6.0.29 * IE 9.0 * Firefox 6.0
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3.0 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
Thanks for that
I still hope for a registry fix to make silent mode permanent.
Anyone knows where the settings are stored
