For those following this topic, due to posting limits I had to post updates here Tracking thread for Norton 25.9 / 25.10 / 25.11 / 25.12 releases - #42 by user10572
In short, the actual focus grab problem seems to have been fixed or isn’t noticeable, but there’s still something strange happening with high cpu unless Norton is open on the desktop, on all of the PCs on which I have Norton installed.
Now that my post cap has been increased, I’ll put any further updates in line on this topic.
These “problems” that are spoken of here — they are not important.
What is important is that every paid Norton subscriber is flooded with spammy advertisements daily.
In light of that, Norton has reallocated and dedicated all software engineering to the corporate goal of Increase Spam Production (ISP).
All who think that your paid products should actually be fully functional are missing the point.
Increased spam will distract you from the product bugs and limitations, and increased spam will set you free. Why would anybody complain about Freedom.
Receive & Enjoy spam >>> and be FREE from the shackles of spamless emptiness.
The issue has resurfaced, with focus being lost again. FocusMonitor.exe indicates that the Norton UI is still the culprit stealing focus. I investigated further and noticed in Norton that my system was pending a restart to complete the installation of the latest Norton Security version (25.12.10659). I went ahead and restarted my system, and so far I have not observed any further issues.
My theory is as follows: after I uploaded the logs to support, Norton likely provided an interim patch or fix to address the focus issue, which was pushed automatically - possibly through LiveUpdate. When the new Norton version (25.12.10659) was released, that interim patch may have been reverted or overridden before somehow, causing the issue to reappear. Hopefully, this has now been fully resolved in the new version that was applied after the restart.
Overall, I like and trust the team at Norton. After all, I am entrusting them with my system security and data privacy, and they are a well-established and reputable company. That said, I do wish issues like this were resolved earlier, with greater transparency, and without recurring, as repeated incidents can be quite frustrating and stressful for users like us.
That said, everything seems good now, and I am hopeful this remains resolved.
It’s not resolved completely, see my post here Tracking thread for Norton 25.9 / 25.10 / 25.11 / 25.12 releases - #42 by user10572
But, partly thanks to @Frank_V1 ‘s post above, in the middle of the night I had a brainwave.
a) Why does Frank_V1 get lots of advertising when I don’t?
b) Why isn’t everyone suffering from this problem?
c) What’s the common factor between my three PCs that all suffer from this problem?
Answer - network ad-blocker!
When this problem is apparent, with Norton 360 sitting in the background in the system tray, it is making calls every couple of seconds to ipm.avcdn.net, which my ad blocker blocks. According to Norton and NextDNS | MalwareTips Forums this site is responsible for in-product messaging, promos, etc…
As soon as I open Norton 360 to the desktop, the high cpu, flashing cursor and calls to ipm.avcdn.net stop.
I’m waiting for a call from Norton second line support today or tomorrow, I’m going to be interested what they say. I expect the answer will be to whitelist the above site as it’s “essential” to the operation of the tool. Let’s see!
Go into your BIOS and check to see if the TPM 2.0 setting is swtiched off, if it is, turn it back on, save and exit the BIOS and see if that fixes the problem. The last Windows update turned off TPM on my computer and caused a BSOD crash! See if that works and share with the rest of the class. Good luck.
A bit more information, which has been reported to Norton:
Norton 360 makes a call to ipm.avcdn.net every 20 minutes or so, if it is able to reach that URL.
If ipm.avcdn.net is blocked, Norton 360 attempts to reach that URL every 30 to 40 seconds. Each call is accompanied by a flash of the cursor with the loading icon and a brief spike in cpu usage.
At some time after the PC is turned on, the attempts change from a couple of times per minute to a call every two or three seconds. Occasionally this occurs almost immediately after power on but most of the time it takes between 30 minutes and two hours to start.
The high calling frequency of this URL is accompanied by high cpu (~50%), a flashing cursor with the loading icon and, I believe, the occasional loss of focus. This behaviour is presumably caused due to looping/ waiting for the URL to respond.
As soon Norton 360 is opened to the desktop, the high cpu usage, flashing cursor with the loading icon and calls to ipm.avcdn.net stop (or probably occur at a low frequency – not tested).
And linking this to the thread raised by @WildPyro NortonUI.exe Silently Crashing in the Background - #16 by user10572 - looking at Process Monitor and Norton logs, the Norton network service appears to be crashing (presumably due to not being able to reach the URL, which then causes the UI process to restart.
I’m told by Norton support that my support case relating to this this issue is now with the “senior team”.
No update from Norton into their investigation, not that I’m expecting one. And no fix yet either.
ta det rolig ting skal nok ske men jeg har ingen info om hvordan de vil rette noget men det vil da ske men de vil jo ikke rette noget uden de også har nyt i deres produkter nok til en big eller en major plus også at de vil rette nogle fejl men vad de retter ??? men deres 26.1 forventer jeg at blive gigantisk med rettelser så hvis du er sur vent til efter den jeg er ikke sikkert på noget men det er min ide