I have a strong and bitter complaint about how Norton 360 does idle time "background" activities. It is very clear to me that Norton systems programmers do not understand the concept of background nor that of the purpose of my PC being for me to perform user tasks on it rather than simply be a vehicle for Norton to run system scans while unnecessarily tying up my PC. I believe that what Norton does is if I walk away from my PC for some period of time, Norton takes the system over for whatever its tasks are and does not let go. For Norton to take the system over while I am not doing anything is fine. I have no problem with that. What I have a severe problem with is the fact that when I return and try to do anything, Norton does not let go of the CPU or disk. There is absolutely no excuse for this. It is bad and lazy systems programming. I can understand needing 15-20 seconds to clean up but that is all. Haven't your systems programmers heard of queues with priorities? Didn't it ever occur to them that perhaps Norton should run at very low priority so that I can have the PC back when I need it? It is absolutely ridiculous that I need to wait many minutes on Norton rather than Norton waiting on me. Why can't you fix this stupidity?
Hi Georgeboole,
Welcome to Norton Community!
Sorry for the inconvenience the background scan has caused you. Please let us know the following information so that we can help you further.
- Your Version of Norton product
- Your Operating System
- Do you have any other Security products installed?
Thanks,
HarryP
Thank you for your response.
I have Norton 360, version 5.2.0.13. I run under XP (alas, but this is an old PC and won't run Microsoft's latest turkey). There is no other security software on the PC. I should probably update to version 6 of Norton 360. Would that help? Just so you know, I went through the instructions for increasing the idle time to 30 minutes, disabling the idle time full system scan and idle time quick scan which seems to help but that is not an acceptable solution. These are valuable tools. I like having them. I just don't want to have to wait for many minutes while Norton decides to let go of the machine and give it back to me. I have a business to run that uses this PC. I cannot afford to wait 10 or so minutes every time I stop for a few minutes to speak to a client.
Thank you,
George Boole
I would like to add more information to my previous comments on my unhappiness with Norton. I set the idle time clock to 30 minutes. I walked away from my PC for more than that period of time and, when I returned, found my PC tied in knots because the disk was being hogged. I clicked on the Norton 360 icon and went to Norton tasks (eventually - it took its time getting there because of the disk being tied up). I found two things. The first is that a Norton quick scan was running. The second was that when I tried to scroll down the list of Norton activities that, after 10 seconds or so, it automatically sprung back to the top of the list. Neither is acceptable!!! What is Norton hiding at the bottom of the list? How do I keep your quick scan from running? How do I shut it off if it is running? I have a business to run. I cannot be waiting to use my PC until your stuff stops running!!! This is irresponsible on the part of Norton. I can't be the only one suffering from this. I will happily give up the automatic quick scan. I do that many times a day anyway to get rid of tracking cookies but only when I know I am truly idle, not when Norton, in its infinite wisdom, decides that. I run the full scan nightly at least weekly. Why are you making me suffer like this? Why is your stuff more important than my stuff? I assume that there is some arcane way to shut your stuff off. I need that information but that is not an answer. Why isn't there a way to easily configure Norton 360 so that I can shut off what I don't want without having to ask here?
Did you try upgrading to Norton 360 Version 6.0?
Does the issue persists even in Norton 360 Version 6.0?
Did you try turning off the Idle Time Optimizer from Administrative Settings in Norton 360?
Thanks,
HarryP
Hi georgeboole,
I hope I don't misstate anything here, as I use Norton Internet Security rather than Norton 360, but N360v.5 is comparable to NIS 2011, while N360v.6 is equivalent to NIS 2012. In versions of NIS prior to the 19.2 patch for NIS 2012, Idle TIme Quick Scans were designed to run to completion, even if you resumed using the computer. The rationale for this was that the Quick Scans are a high priority and, because they are of short duration, they would not cause undo grief for the user. With NIS 2012 however, the Quick Scans were beefed up to look more intensely for rootkits and other threats. The scans became long enough that they did start to adversely impact users returning to their work. So the 19.2 patch changed the Quick Scan behavior so that a scan in progress would cancel when the computer became no longer idle, and resume during the next idle period. So the new behavior means that a Quick Scan will not run while the computer is being used.
There are a couple of things you can do. If you do leave the computer idle for short periods, you might want to set the Idle Time Out to only a minute or two, rather than 30 minutes. See if this allows the Quick Scans to run and complete within the times that you would normally leave the PC unattended. Upgrading to N360v.6 might give you the new behavior of NIS 2012. I am reasonably certain that it would, but since I do not use Norton 360, I wouldn't want you rely on me for this decision. Perhaps someone using N360v.6 can confirm that the Idle Quick Scans do cancel when idle time is interrupted.
Perhaps someone using N360v.6 can confirm that the Idle Quick Scans do cancel when idle time is interrupted.
Yes. If you create the scan with the option to "Run only at Idle time" the scan will be cancelled when idle time is interrupted.
Thank you for your response. I will update to v6 and see if that has an affect on my problem. If not, I will be back.