HI Kencl,
An observation re a point in my last post about the suggestion I'd seen that "disable auto-protect" can be greyed-out if Norton has "pending file(s) to submit". Even if that suggestion is true in some circumstances, it doesn't seem to apply to pending submissions in diStRptr.dat and diSTpIng.dat.
if it's true or not, it's quite weird that "pending file(s)" could or need to take that long with Norton if any if there would or should be any actual pending file(s) to begin with and if so the file or files are not even mentioned in the software which is a developing lacking issue on Norton its behave. i've done an extended scanning on my system with 3 widely known scanning tools.
To begin with because my previous scans by ESET and Housecall from trend micro and the Windows malware scanner did not result in any detection's.
1. with Windows KB890830 V5.124 malware scanner, which took quite some time and after finishing a complete full system file scan, the tool found nothing malicious or infected on the system.
2. ESET online scanner, which also took quite the time, however ESET found and detected some files and installers to be PUP (Potential Unwanted Programs) and looking at the log they are so far harmless or perhaps false positives, which Norton did not detect in any way.
side note: in the log there is a detection towards an application; TuneUpUtilities which i have never used or installed, its a tool which was downloaded by my father years ago and was saved in a folder with loads of MP3 files which i have missed to delete, aside that all files in the ESET log are basically solved and deleted because i rarely or haven't used the programs in quite some time.
however that said i see while Minitool Partition Wizards was downloaded from the official site it shows a detection towards Win64/Minitool.B but to be save and not knowing what it might do, i've also solved and deleted that by ESET as well. same counts for it's MSI Live Update application which is an update tool from MSI towards MSI components.
also see the ESET log file (attached) which gives you the option to search the PUP's by plain text.
3. after running a full system scan by Malwarebytes, it only found a PUP.Optional.DriverToolkit which was also not detected by Norton!
https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/detections/pup-optional-drivertoolkit
after looking at it and the log, i do remember i had installed a application called driver reviver in the past (which was well over a year or 2 ago) to find a certain driver and uninstalled the program slightly after because i found the software was to my findings not 100% trustworthy. that being said that was a very long time ago and if the program would be malicious or an PUP, Norton did not pick up on it in any way although i decided to remove it from the system myself after finding the driver i needed. also the link of malwarebytes provides screenshots of another interface compared to that from driver reviver UI.
aside from above mentioning im using Snappy Driver Installer Origin which is the savest and trustworthy way to install any driver for the system reasoning is due to the fact that MS and it's Windows update feature tends to choose their own MS drivers over manufacturer drivers and can cause instability towards the system, and yes i also know that some individuals have copied the program in the past to inject malware, in my case i have the actual official program without the malware.
and to state clear the norton "disable auto-protect" function wasn't greyed out in any moment or point in time before or after this event because the norton "disable auto-protect" function only happened to be greyed out after i installed a new SSD and cloned an older SSD files on to the new drive which not contained the detected files or installers and as mentioned only official game files, so it's quite weird that only ESET and Malwarebytes online - free scanner found such files and not Norton that gives me the conclusion that Norton needs to step up in it's detection alongside if its actually harmful or an PUP. aside that looking at the scans, they are PUP's and not directly harmfull but Norton did not detect it all together.
and the norton "disable auto-protect" function only greyed out since 2 weeks ago, slightly after the moment i installed the new SSD but i connected it to a iROG-sata connector on the motherboard instead of a SATA connector, which was caused my system to hang every so often in its startup while loading in the BIOS with the message: "Updating iROG firmware now! Do NOT reboot or turn off power..." and sometimes it would show an additional message: Update firmware successfully! and sometimes it would cause the system not to boot but hang in it's bootloader screen. my confusion arised by this and why windows saw the SSD as an eject-able media or as an external SSD/USB drive which it was not and changed it to a SATA connector slightly after that issue was solved and did not return and by that time the functionality of Norton still left to be greyed out still as of today.
Although my Norton background tasks were running OK throughout yesterday, there must have a bottleneck somewhere as my diStRptr.dat file grew from its base size of 89KB up to 266KB and the diStPing.dat file reappeared. Eventually after an extended run of Product Maintenance that backlog was cleared and diStRptr.dat returned to 89KB. But while the backlog existed, I checked "disable auto-protect" several times and it was never greyed-out.
weirdly enough my diSt files have slightly increased since last post, although all background tasks are completed and the files having another behavior as you mention above here. sadly with me the "disable auto-protect" remains greyed out however as said when i load in to windows it is not greyed out but only when windows in loaded in fully it changes to an greyed out status not able to access however all Norton tasks completed.
I'm no longer running with the hosts file solution. As of yesterday, I now have my router settings amended to use the Google DNS servers instead of my ISP servers. I did try that before without success but I've since realised that I also need to restart the router after making that change in order to clear the router's DNS cache. Everything running OK.
yes for the DNS change to take effect, all needs to flush by restarting the router. however i would suggest to use the Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 DNS and setting Google's DNS as secondary which i've set my router to instead of my ISP DNS. done the same to both IPv4 and IPv6 by the way.
I've still had no further response from Norton support re the underlying problem (identified by my ISP) of the spurious invalid nameserver IPv6 address being promulgated to DNS servers. If this thread is being monitored by a Norton forum moderator, perhaps they could get involved to push this along with support.
i beg to differ if Norton support will or would read community posts because the "disable auto-protect" seems to be a problem since 2008.
and after all this deep scanning and cleaning etc. for treats that aren't really intrusive or harmful and Norton not even detecting or signalling these PUP's the Norton "disable auto-protect" functionality is still greyed out. the only intrusive .exe file remains the one from Adobe Acrobat as explained in an earlyer post.
although it would be nice of them to actually look in to it, and actually a need in case we are paying customers. aside from my findings up here i am convinced those scan's towards the PUP's which not seem harmful and has nothing to do with the function being greyed out while Norton has not even detected those to begin with but is a bug in their software by as far i can conclude adding a new SSD 2/3 weeks ago or the Adobe Acrobat .exe file caused the issue to arise, which lets me to believe that Norton are not 100% accurate nor 100% waterproof in their developing of the Norton brand and product to begin with.
so i am actually thinking by now to change to another AV suite product after my subscription period ends and looking at this issue and Norton not taking any constructive nor effective action towards a issue that has been around that long, and not taking and responsibility or 100% support and having used Norton for well over 20 years now, it does not give me the confident assurance and guarantee that it will ever change. @nortonmoderator and @nortonsupport
Also see the scan results in the log file (attached)
But this only happened where i added the new Samsung SSD of 4 TB and copied or better said cloned the files from another SSD which i was already using to the New SSD, to be also clear there are only official game files on that drive and no downloaded files of any sort. so i am 100% sure that there is no threat on the system and im sure of it because i've not downloaded anything from the internet in months aside changing the location of the game files. and before changing this i didn't have the issue where the function was greyed out.
