NIS 21.1.0.18 systray icon

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
21
Sandro_cm wrote:
peterweb wrote:
NIS.exe and ccsvchst.exe showing in task manager shows that Norton IS protecting you. It is just the icon not yet displayed, which I do not see as a critical feature to have loaded immediately. It is the protection I want.

   

I agree Peter,

 

In fact, in my previous post , I pointed out that the nis.exe processes are started correctly, that would mean that we are still protected. BTW, I did not say that it is a critical issue, the problem is that the NIS icon appears in the systray with a long delay,

1.5 mins, LazarusLong reported 2 mins.

This means that the NIS GUI cannot be opened during this time, also, I've never had this delay in any previous version of NIS.

This is the issue I pointed out (although not critical). From my point of view, Symantec should consider this problem so they can

fix it in an upcoming patch.

 

Sandro

Same behavior here--cannot open NIS GUI until NIS icon appears (Boot Time Protection is OFF).  I haven't timed the appearance of the icon; but it "used to be" one of the first tray icons to appear, and now it doesn't appear for what seems an "uncomfortable" length of time.  Not seeing that icon immediately is NOT giving me confidence that I'm protected, even if I am being protected "in the background."  I would also like to see it appear in the systray sooner than later...thanks.

 

Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, NIS Version 21.1.0.18

22

Saganized., I'd suggest setting Boot Time Protection to Aggressive. Then you are protected as soon as you switch your computer on, and you may well find the icon appearing, as it should. This is the setting I use.

23
Saganized wrote:

 

Same behavior here--cannot open NIS GUI until NIS icon appears (Boot Time Protection is OFF).  I haven't timed the appearance of the icon; but it "used to be" one of the first tray icons to appear, and now it doesn't appear for what seems an "uncomfortable" length of time.  Not seeing that icon immediately is NOT giving me confidence that I'm protected, even if I am being protected "in the background."  I would also like to see it appear in the systray sooner than later...thanks.

 

Symantec acknowledged feedback about this issue in August, during the recent Norton version 21 product beta testing:

 

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-360-Norton-Internet/Feedback-Enable-Boot-Time-Protection-default-setting/m-p/1006675/highlight/true#M1171

 

As that is a link to a transient forum, the content of that post has been reproduced below:

In NIS v21, the default setting for the 'Enable Boot Time Protection' setting is still set to 'Off':

 

NIS 21-0-0-58 Settings - Enable Boot Time Protection.png

 

Given NAV 2013's poor results in the AV-Comparatives Performance-Test (AV) May 2013, then please explain why the default setting for the 'Enable Boot Time Protection' setting in the Norton v21 products hasn't been set to 'Normal'? Page 4 from the report above explicitly states that:

 

"Security products need to load on systems at an early stage to provide security from the very beginning - this load has some impact on the time needed for a system to start up. Measuring boot times accurately is challenging. The most significant issue is to define exactly when the system is fully started, as many operating environments may continue to perform start-up activities for some time after the system appears responsive to the user. It is also important to consider when the protection provided by the security solution being tested is fully active, as this could be a useful measure of boot completion as far as the security solution is concerned. Some Anti-Virus products are loading their services very late (even minutes later) at boot (users may notice that after some time that the system loaded, the system gets very slow for some moments), so the system looks like loading very fast, but it just loads its services later and makes the system also insecure/vulnerable. As we do not want to support such activities, we still do not measure boot times.

 

To support our concerns, we sporadically check in performance tests if the products are loading all their protection modules before e.g. malware in the start-up folder is executed. Several products failed this test, except AVG, Bitdefender, eScan, Kingsoft, Microsoft and Sophos. Those were the only products that detected and blocked the malware before its execution after system start-up (by loading itself at an early stage); in all other cases, first the malware was successfully executed and only later detected by the AV products, when it was already too late."

 

This issue has been raised a number of times in previous Norton Security product beta tests. Search the Norton Product forums for threads that suggest setting the Boot Time Protection setting to 'Aggressive'; on many systems, the 'Off' setting introduces an unnecessary time delay in loading NIS that causes concern for end-users.

 

Based on the information above, please make 'Normal' the default setting for the 'Enable Boot Time Protection' setting.

 

Thanks

 

 

 

24
elsewhere wrote:
 

This issue has been raised a number of times in previous Norton Security product beta tests. Search the Norton Product forums for threads that suggest setting the Boot Time Protection setting to 'Aggressive'; on many systems, the 'Off' setting introduces an unnecessary time delay in loading NIS that causes concern for end-users.

 

Based on the information above, please make 'Normal' the default setting for the 'Enable Boot Time Protection' setting.

 

Thanks

 

 

 


Thanks, elsewhere and F4E.  I'm going to choose Normal rather than Aggressive; because Aggressive results in an excessive boot up time (not sure exactly how long; but it's a long time).  And, according to the Boot Time Protection Help page, Normal "Provides you enhanced protection during your computer start time without compromising your computer's boot performance."

 

If we want "maximum security," then I'm not sure I understand why OFF is even an option.  Unless, a user just wants the fastest boot up time possible (while at the same time, "reducing the protection of their computer").

That said, why would a user want to reduce the protection of his/her computer in the first place?  Isn't Norton Internet Security all about...Security?  It seems counterintuitive for Norton to select a setting (OFF) which reduces protection as the Default option.

 

Anyway, going to use Normal.  Thank you all for the advice.  Have a good day.  :smileyhappy:

25

Hi to all,

 

I just want to add that the purpose of my thread is to know if in fact there have been some changes in NIS Engine with the latest build.

I know that it is incovenient for many users not to be able to use Outlook or other programs until NIS has been fully loaded, but after giving a second thought, and if indeed the NIS Engine is improved and it's not a glitch, I think that it's better that the NIS icon is showing in "real" time which means that it appears when the NIS product is fully loaded at 100% and not before.

I hope that someone from Symantec could give an explanation.

Thank you.

 

Best regards,

26

Just been following this thread and after I noticed my tray icon was also slow to appear when booting up and then showed up with a red exclamation mark through it, that is before showing the green tick, I have also set my 'Boot time protection' to normal! Hopefully this should resolve this.

 

Thanks for the pointer people.

27

This whole situation with sys. tray icon is taken wrong by some forum members. It's not about signifant is that icon (it's not because at some point user will see that is two nis.exe processes)

 

It's about loss of functionality of the product and loss of efficiency in daily work. How is it possible? Well if I want faster boot time I must/will not change default boot time protection. In this way, with this bug, I can't:

 

  -   open IE because Norton is part of IE (as plugin)

  -   open Outlook to receive e-mails because Norton has Antispam filter integrated into Outlook....

 

..because I must wait Norton to finish own buggy delayed start. And if I want to overcome this "situation" I must set Boot Time Protection to Normal or Agresive whic criples my Windows boot time (and experience) 

 

For me, for now, problem is solwed. I uninstalled 2014 and went back to 2013.

Always and with no exceptions users must mimics beta testers for unfinished Norton product until they make polished patch. This was same with 2013, 2012 and so on....

28

Heres my 2cp.

 

Kudos to the Original Poster for pointing this out. Because I never noticed it til last night (17th) and I knew I didnt have any issues 1 week ago.

 

So heres my scenario.

 

Reboot PC.

The very first seconds I see the clock it will take Norton Internet Security icon to load near taskbar 1minute and 50seconds to load.

 

Afterwhich to me it shows a Red Exclamation Point.

 

Roughly 60seconds later the Red Exclamation Point disappears and finally turns to a Green Check Mark.

 

Reboot PC and the same above happens.

 

I chatted with Symantec Chat and all he said was "It has something to do with how Norton is loading and that certain files needed to be loaded before you have full control and also the other stuff running in my background is the factor"

 

But again I tried to tell that person that 1 week ago I didnt have a problem  and as the original poster of this thread said...it only changed when NIS Version number changed.

 

As other posters or original poster says too....WE the customer has no control of launching Norton Internet Security until it fully loads.  With that in mind I've already timed it over and over and over again.  Time is consistant.

 

1minute 50seconds before NIS appears

Another 60seconds before NIS icon goes green

Possibly another 15-30seconds before we can launch the application

 

And keep in mind I'm using a:

 

6 Core Processor at 3.2Ghz

8 Gigs System Memory

64 bit OS

 

And 3 things running near clock

And 3 things running besides Norton Internet Security as part of my Services Startup (Msconfig)

 

You will not see 6-12 icons  near my Clock; only 3 like I said

 

So again I cannot forsee how its MY FAULT for having so many loading.

 

The Tech Support guy Opened Settings and under the General Tab changed all the drop down menus to roughly 1minute instead of default of 10min, 20min and 10min....however that solved nothing.

 

Disabling everything in msconfig and within services did speed up the NIS load but thats kinda not right when i myself have had the same setup for months and months and months and NIS has always loaded with my other icons at same time.

 

Unfortunately I even un installed the application clean; downloaded and re installed and unfortunately after a reboot it still persists.

 

So again I'm gonna have to side with the original poster and say "something is wrong (different) with this current version of NIS"

29

Hi,

 

Same thing for my XP SP3 system, just updated to 21.1.0.18.

Conclusion:    Something has changed in the way that NIS 21.1.0.18 loads. (when Boot Time Protection is set to OFF).

 

Another remark is that with the latest version of  NIS and after the idle Norton Insight task completed, the Trust Level on my 3 pc's, XP SP3 & 2x W7 64-bit, has dramatically inceased from 83% to 96%. That's probably a good thing.

 

Regards,

30

I show this with no further comment, other than I can see no valid reason to set Boot Time Protection to OFF.

 

The boot time protection feature provides enhanced security level from the time you start your computer. It ensures better security by running all the necessary components that are required for computer protection as soon as you start your computer. A boot time scan is a virus scan that is run before the operating system fully loads up. This allows Norton Internet Security to have access to all the files on your computer with no chance that they are being used by another program or the operating system.

To protect your computer during boot time, you must configure the Enable Boot Time Protection option. To access the Enable Boot Time Protection option, go to the Norton Internet Security main window, and then click Settings > Computer > Real Time Protection.

31

Just getting back to my post last night, checked this morning when I booted pc up and after setting the 'Boot time protection' to normal, can confirm problem solved. The Norton icon appeared in the usual time with the green tick, have done the same for our other home pc and all is well.

 

I do feel that Norton should fix this ASAP as there will be millions out there who don't go on these forums having this problem thinking something seriously wrong and not knowing how to simply rectify this!

32
Apostolos wrote:

Hi,

 

Same thing for my XP SP3 system, just updated to 21.1.0.18.

Conclusion:    Something has changed in the way that NIS 21.1.0.18 loads. (when Boot Time Protection is set to OFF).

Agreed. Something has changed, and the application should behave normally no matter what setting was used. This needs to be fixed in engineering, and not fixed by users choosing the Normal or Agressive setting.

33

Not sure what you mean by "and the application should behave normally no matter what setting was used"     

 

The three levels of Boot Time Protection privide increasing levels of protection, with an increasing level of resource usage, i.e. time to boot.

 

As I see it, this is 'normal' for this application.

 

If you feel it should behave differently than the developers have decided, you need to post in the Product Suggestions board here     http://community.norton.com/t5/Product-Suggestions/bd-p/Suggestions

 

 

 

34

I agree with all they are complaining, I'm not happy about how NIS works when Windows starts.

The issue exists and must be solved.

 

The fact of having to set the boot time to aggressive so that the NIS icon in the systray appear simultaneously with the desktop, it's just a way to avoid the delay, but this cannot be considered a definitive solution to this problem.

As users will be upgraded to NIS 21.1, I can imagine that this topic will be widely discussed and increase users' complaints in this regard.

Many people set the boot time protection to OFF because they want the computer starts up quickly, as was the case with previous versions.

My thought is that everyone can have a chance to set the boot time they like, without having to encounter any problem when Windows starts.

 

Sandro

35

Hi,

 

Just wanted to add that Windows was designed to work on it's own, Norton was designed to work with Windows.

I want NIS embedded on my system but I do not want it to hog my system even if it's minimal.

As for the "Aggressive" setting fans, remember last year how many ZeroAccess cases users had even when their Boot Setting was set maybe to Hyper Aggressive.

No matter what setting you are having if you are at the wrong place at the wrong time then bang...

Also, in my case I am tweaking my systems to work as efficiently as possible and I do not want  all the hours spent for that wasted by changing a setting which reduces my system performance.

Please remember that Symantec still considers that the default Boot Time Protection setting is the OFF position and claims that there are several layers of protection in NIS which make the change of this setting not necessary.

I trust Symantec.

Just a thought.

Thank you.

 

Regards,

36
peterweb wrote:

Not sure what you mean by "and the application should behave normally no matter what setting was used"     

 

The three levels of Boot Time Protection privide increasing levels of protection, with an increasing level of resource usage, i.e. time to boot.

 

As I see it, this is 'normal' for this application.

 

If you feel it should behave differently than the developers have decided, you need to post in the Product Suggestions board here     http://community.norton.com/t5/Product-Suggestions/bd-p/Suggestions

 

Let me reiterate this - THIS-IS-NOT-A-OK and I will absolutely NOT ''go post to suggestions'' or wherever else you might send me. In all previous product versions, the application started normally with the processes and in the tray (when all the bugs were ironed out, eventually), whatever and whichever Boot Protection option was selected. This kind of behavior has always been and should again be treated as a performance issue.

 

This kind of thing has always been fixed after being reported. IT-MUST-BE-FIXED-AGAIN-WITHOUT-US-USERS-DOING-ANYTHING-WE-DID-NOT-DO-BEFORE.

 

I hope this has been clear, hypelinked and loud enough.

37

I would like to say that I changed my Boot Time to "Normal" and Windows loaded and the App Tray loaded with NIS and a green check mark and it seems to be working okay.

 

But thats just 1 Reboot after enabling Boot Time Protection to "Normal"

 

As another poster said Symantec Recommends Boot Time to be set to OFF and well if thats the case, why are tons of users having to ENABLE Boot Time just to get the product working faster?

 

So while mine is set to NORMAL that may have fixed my issue but thats going against what Symantec Recommends......so therein still lies a problem with the latest version!

38

Hi Itolman,

 

Just to clarify something, Symantec recommends the 3 possible settings, it is the user's choise to elaborate what's best for his needs, Performance or "Enhanced" security.

However, the DEFAULT setting, which every user finds when he installs the product, is the OFF setting and it's marked GREEN as well, so it doesn't affect or compromises the security aspect of the product.

Someone could correct me if my understanding is wrong.

 

Regards,

39

lol no you are probably right

 

The word Default and the word Recommended are totally separate.

 

I apologize and retract that comment.

 

I mean I guess I understand why Symantec has it default'd to OFF, because as several has pointed out...setting it to Aggressive or Normal increases the duration for a PC to fully boot up. Keeping the Default Setting to OFF allows a users PC to quickly boot to the desktop faster.

 

I just changed mine to Normal; now honestly I didnt see much of a performance hit when I turned it to Normal but it still doesnt make sense how 1 change affects how it boots up....especially turning on a feature compared to its default of OFF

40

Hi Itolman,

 

No need to apologize, no problem at all.

The fact is that no matter what Boot Time Protection setting is applied, NIS icon should have the same behavior and load normally, not delayed.

It needs to be fixed by the Norton Product Team and not having to apply a workaround like changing the Boot Time settings.

That's my humble opinion.

 

Kind regards,