Should I turn off intelligent skip scanning? Based on the help file turning on intelligent skip scanning makes Norton skip non common file types that virus can infect. So it can lay dormant in those file types.
Intelligent Skip Scanning
Norton Internet Security extracts and scans maximum of 2-GB data from a compressed file. This way, Intelligent Skip Scanning prevents the scan from being stuck up with a single compressed file that contains a large amount of data. Therefore, Norton Internet Security scans your computer faster.
By default, the Intelligent Skip Scanning option is turned on.
When Intelligent Skip Scanning is on, Norton Internet Security does not scan some of the common non-container files types that are available on your disk. The commonly available non-container file that Norton Internet Security skips are .dll, .gif, .png, .jpg, .asf, .avi, .bmp, .htm, .ini, .css, .cur, .fon, .ico, .inf, .sys, .ttf, and .wav.
If a container file appears in a non-container file format Norton Internet Security considers it as a non-container file and skips the file from scanning. For example, rename a .zip container file with threats to .bmp, which is a non-container file extension. Norton Internet Security considers it as a non-container file and skips the file from scanning. Also, Norton Internet Security does not scan these common non-container files that you receive through email or IM when the option is turned on.
When you turn off the Intelligent Skip Scanning option, Norton Internet Security scans files of all types, regardless of their extension