NIS 2009 - Automatic Program Control seems to stop working upon service restart

I'm using the latest, 16.1.0.33.  I have APC turned on - my understanding is that this setting prevents all NIS popups asking to block/allow programs and components and handles them automatically.  This worked correctly at fresh install of program and gave no popups when I started many internet-accessing programs.

 

After I restarted my computer, though, the popups started, even though the APC setting was still on.  I can fix the problem by doing the Firewall Reset in the Advanced Settings screen.  This causes popups to go away again, even for internet-accessing programs I've never run before.  But the problem will come back if I reboot or if I stop and restart the Norton service.

 

I'm using Vista 64 bit.  Perhaps I'm misunderstanding some functionality here?