Issue abstract: Norton displays “protected” windows that interfere with Splashtop users.
Detailed description: Splashtop users cannot see the “protected” windows (possibly created with GetWindowDisplayAffinity or some similar method). The Splashtop user is clueless about what gets clicked on the bottom right corner of the monitor since they cannot see the invisible Norton window there.
Product & version number:
OS details:
What is the error message you are seeing?
If you have any supporting screenshots, please add them: Here is the screenshot: Do you see it? No, because it is invisible just like the windows displayed by Norton when special activities (usually harmless activities) are encountered.
If Norton insists on invisible Windows for Splashtop users, what can they do to avoid these windows? Or is there any product to make them visible when we suspect they are on the screen? This is a nightmare for Splashtop users.
@KJSmith Are the users in question in a managed business, enterprise environment?
SA
It’s a small business for which I provide IT Support. Only myself and one other employee currently use Splashtop to access the Windows PC in the office. So we are the only two people affected by the invisible (protected) Norton Windows that pop-up and stay open in the lower right corner for various conditions.
Thank you. There are so many questions I would ask just to touch all the bases as I normally would. Being that you both are accessing a remote device, I assume the office computer is an unattended workstation. Do all three devices have the same SplashTop “roles”, are they all on the same version of Windows and same release/build of Norton 360?
Edited: Forgot to ask is this is an issue that just presented itself ? New installs of Norton?
SA
The Norton invisible window always appears on the single Windows 11 PC that we can both access. I first reported the problem on April 7, 2025. The workstation is unattended, but I can frequently contact someone in the office to go to the machine to remove/close the hidden window. I suspect Norton is creating Windows with WindowAffinity set to WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE (0x00000011) or WDA_MONITOR (0x00000001).
WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE (0x00000011) Visible only on a local monitor — cannot be captured
or streamed remotely (works against Splashtop, RDP, OBS, etc.)
or WDA_MONITOR (0x00000001 Excludes window from any capture, including local screen capture APIs
Today I created a C# program to list all Windows and show their settings for WindowsAffinity. I will run it the next time I determine a hidden window must be present. This must be run on the PC we access remotely.
I don’t think its specifically an RDP issue, when I get certain notifications and try doing a screen capture the notification always gets hidden until I close my capture app. Then it reappears. The settings shown below are the only areas where I can see that may be of help. These new version releases are not user configurable in the ways Norton was before them.
SA
What I am really hoping is that a Norton developer will see what I am saying and understand why it is such a problem for Splashtop users. Then I would hope that Norton developers would design a setting to let us keep all other protections but allow us to avoid their windows with the problematic DisplayAffinity. Is there a Norton developer here that has read this problem and understands it? Only Norton is going to be able to provide a fix, but when I talked to the first level of support on the phone, they didn’t even seem to understand what I am saying. I tried to get access to a higher level of support but got nowhere. For now we live with the problem. Using two monitors helps because we can avoid the problematic monitor until someone at the office can clear the hidden window. It’s very frustrating and somewhat dangerous because we can accidentally click a button on the hidden window and who knows what that button does. Even though we cannot see the hidden window it actually exists on the screen and we use a mouse-click on a button we see, but it actually behaves as clicking the button on the hidden window if they overlay each other.
There are Norton employees who regularly review the forums, our Admin is one of those, we rely on them to forward most of what we need specific people at Norton to see here. A contacts list has been requested, the reality is Norton employees get irritated when tagged from the forums therefore we Guru’s have our hands tied in more ways than not. I will do my best to get this to someone at Norton for review.
Did you review the settings I suggested yesterday?
SA
I did not try the settings because:
- I don’t really want to disable any protections.
- I don’t have an easy way to force a protected window to appear (i.e. hard for me to test effect)
I assume that Norton is simply unaware of the problem and can easily provide some solution or work-around if they put their minds to it.
P.S. I don’t know what “our Admin” means. Is that a Norton employee or a volunteer on the Community or ???. I also don’t know what a GURU is. Is a GURU an official title for someone at Norton or on the Community.
Thanks for all your help and suggestions these past days.
“Our forums Administrator” is our admin here on the forums. Guru’s is the title given to select forums users, granted by Norton admins ( we are NOT Norton employees ) that represents our knowledge level and the use of Norton products as well as other areas such as Windows issues, networking, hardware, etc. are beneficial to the forums so we get that title. Usually we Guru’s are the first to jump into a post to begin the process of finding a solution or escalation to the Norton moderators for action.
SA
