I have Norton 360 on my computer with Two different user accounts using Windows 7 and IE 11.
Accessing Internet using IE 11, all sites are easily accessed but all downloads of any sort are completely blocked on one account and completely accessible on the other. Both accounts have downloads enabled in IE. I have tried resetting IE to defaults so I don't think this is a configuration problem in IE. Now I need to verify a few things about Norton to determine if 360 is any part of the access problem:
- Are the customization settings for Norton different for each user on the same computer?
- What if any settings (other than parental controls) could be used in Norton to completely block all downloads?
- I know it's unlikely, but is there any way for Norton's settings to be changed by an attacker thru the registry?
BACKGROUND: I recently removed (so far so good without reoccurrence) a Poweliks Trojan that took over my computer (on the main user account that has download access blocked) after Norton 360 somehow let it in. Although I was alerted to the attack because Norton supposedly Quarantined a file, it never really caught an eliminated the "Root" cause in the registry. I noticed continued sluggishness in the computer which led to Task Manager inspection that revealed multiple dllhost.exe host processes. Although I subsequently seem to have eliminated that "root" cause of dllhost.exe host process multiplication using another program, it appears that the attacker must have done something to change my configuration to in some way Block ALL Downloads. I suspect a trick of some sort has changed an obscure key in the registry that somehow blocks IE from downloading. I am able to download using Windows Update but anything thru IE is blocked.
Since my alternate user account on the same computer seems to work completely OK, I doubt the problem is with the actual IE or Norton programs or any other hardware / software issue but more likely a "setting" thru IE (or possibly Norton 360) that has been hijacked in some way. I am using multiple other malware detection/removal problems but so far without luck in solving the Blocked Downloads problem.
Can anyone answer the 3 issues re: Norton and does anyone have alternate suggestions about what kind of problem this could be and how to solve it without having to reinstall programs or add another user account?