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On both of my laptops, today especially I have been having hanging shut down and restarting issues. After using the remover tool and removing Norton, the computer could shut down and restart fine.
Fast Startup is off, I have done SFC scannow and Restore Health - these VERY rarely work. The 25H2 laptop is notable due to me fully resetting the PC and still having the problems. The restarts and shut down issues where there since the week of the 21th but really started on the 27th and really started on the 29th. They vary from time to time, probably due to live updates fixing the issue, then going back and starting the issue again. Done multiple scans and found nothing.
This has become very frustrating, especially when you think it’s gone and it comes back. And when I removed Norton, I shut down and restarted over 12 times to test it and they went perfect.
It’s Norton. I miss the old Norton. The old Norton was legit.
Note: The computers do EVENTUALLY restart and shutdown, but they normally don’t take 3-4 minutes, they usually take 4 seconds on the 25h2 and 10 seconds on the 24h2.
Fast Startup is disabled, I’ve run an SFC scan and System Restore – these functions VERY rarely work. The 25H2 laptop is noteworthy because after a complete reset, I’m still having problems. I’ve run several scans and found nothing.
It’s Norton. I miss the old Norton. The old Norton was really good.
Note: The computer FINALLY restarts and shuts down, but it usually takes 3-5 minutes.
There are two other updates that were originally listed as affecting provisioned PC’s in corporate environments, that are now affecting user consumer devices as well. Please review the article below. Knowing that these issues began appearing back in September my thoughts are that something released by Microsoft is the actual issue with Norton. The first two that I posted earlier addressed a secure boot certificate expiration. That can affect system at bootup and shutdown respectively. Norton does a startup BIOS scan lasting between 3-5 seconds on all my machines, this is where my concerned thinking is pointing to.
In our original article, we speculated that alongside Windows 11 24H2, version 25H2 is likely affected too, considering the two versions share the same codebase and the servicing branch. Today, Neowin noticed Microsoft has confirmed that it is indeed the case as the company added that the October 2025 Patch Tuesday for Windows 11 25H2 (KB5066835) had these problems too; they started with the September 2025 preview update (KB5065789). In effect this means the latest Windows 11 update KB5070311 is affected too.
But due to the complete lack of response from Norton employees.
There were no patches to fix this problem.
Due to the lack of communication from Norton, I decided (despite my subscription still having 27 days left) to change my security software.
I’m currently the happy owner of “ESET HOME Security Essential.”
No problems.
The ESET program doesn’t act like a billboard (no manufacturer ads).
Norton constantly displayed some product ads in the configuration window.
60 days before the end of my current subscription, windows reminding me to purchase another one started popping up (TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE SUBSCRIPTION EXPIRES).
NORTON ads pop up periodically.
I understand advertising, but I can’t accept such intrusive advertising.
Fortunately, it turned out that NORTON was causing problems for me. Thanks to this, after many years of using Norton, I replaced it with the new, highly configurable and fast ESET software.