Good news !
Can you share the version that works for you ?
Did the same procedure (all fine), then launch Claude again, and Norton Software Analizer wakes up… working forever
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HI Laurent, yes, the versions are:
Installer: 26.3.10749.0
Program: 26.3.10886 (build 26.3.10886.973)
Presumably the Program is slightly different due to normal online updating when it comes along with definitioins.
Per the usual with the Norton interface, I had to fight to find these. The are in About, as you’d expect, but About is a tab offscreen to the right under Settings, so you have to scoot the tabs to the left to see it, then click.
It’s under Help instead on some earlier versions.
Now, results after exactly the fresh install procedure I laid out:
- once you’re restarted, for ten or twenty minutes, Windows 11 will be spacing out running of a number of hungry programs in the background, as you can see from the Windows Task Manager, its Process listing, the one that comes up when you start it, generally.
- among things like Windows Search, another that is perpertually finding reasons to run at 5-10% for a while, you’ll see various Norton items popping up and down in the list.
- One of these will still be Norton Software Analyzer. It will run similarly to Windows Search, around 5% up and down, but no longer dominating.
- After 20-30 minutes, again similarly to the wonderful Microsoft bandit, it will settle down, and if you see it once in a while, will be at very low usage, just instants of 1-3% and gone. It has now gone idel, and is no problem as the average for the machine if you don’t have a guzzler like Chrome browser tabs open, goes to 1-2%. No fans, laptop basically as cool (slightly warm or less) as it can get.
- to be complete, a later coming out of sleep or hibernate (as opening a closed lid) acts much the same as a full restart. Yes, every time. These background ‘daemons’, as they’re called, always want to be sure….
What I think has happened here, and why Norton tasks seem so much more visible, is a revision to what programmers think is the bees knees these days, which is very separated ‘services’. They have to have a name to giver pride to the programmers, and they are now more individually active.
Norton Software Analyzer is one of these, and while it’s part of the ability to watch for your app updates, it sounds like it has more abilities now – it seeks for software that may have malware become part of it, so it wants to run more demanding processes more often, ‘just to be sure’. And of course, announce itself…which I guess we are better to see when an error has been made as clearly the recent bad updated sent to us.
That’s a lot of detail, just putting it in for persons who may want it. If you’ve successfully gotten Norton to do a full update on itself, and them been sure to Restart your machine as it will ask for (Not Shut down-Start) I think you’ll be fine then – in fact my machine may be idling lower than often. But you will occasionally see this task name from time to time, just much better at working quietly as it should now.
Best,
Clive
Laurent, I hadn’t noticed you mentioned Claude as a problem specifically, so I’m going after that. And reunning into trouble with Claude itself, apparently becauee they’re trying to foce agent abilities, bad enough (to force), but also somehow my original Claude install had gone silently failing.
Here’s an explanation I got out of AI Mode on Google Search, pro mode as I’m paying for that generally. I’ll work doewn and see what I can get working per its ideas, report back here when I see results.
But I thoughjt youd like to hear early…if Norton is getting upset, it may well be that it doesn’t like ,or finds intricate to work out what it thinks, for what may be complicated code for the agent business. This would be because as I noted above, Norton is intent on much more proactive and regular snooping whether apps have installed dangerous abiliteis on themselves….
Here’s the link: only, this forum won’t allow me to post a link. Let’s see if I can dismember it enough:
https colongslashslash share.google slash 9gN7AShUrmlcessf3
Everyone: This is the part everyone is missing about using Claude, while Norton is getting the blame for doing what its designed to do. IF, the case were reversed where Norton DIDN’T protect and someone got borked in that process the story line would be quite different don’t you think? Just a reverse observation for thought. The dark side of the internet world also uses agentic code to gain access to infrastructure. Have any of you considered running Claude in a Windows sandbox environment?
AI Overview
Using Claude, particularly its agentic "
Computer Use" and “Claude Code” features, carries risks of prompt injection, unauthorized data exfiltration, and potential remote code execution. These tools can be manipulated to run malicious commands, access sensitive local files, and take over developer machines. Key risks include “agency laundering” (over-reliance), data privacy breaches, and insecure code generation.
Key Security and Operational Risks
- “Prompt Injection” Vulnerabilities: Malicious instructions hidden in websites or documents can trick Claude into ignoring user instructions and performing unauthorized actions, such as extracting local data.
- Computer Use/Agentic Risks: When given control over a computer (mouse/keyboard), Claude can act autonomously, leading to unintended file deletion, unintended purchases, or malware installation.
- Remote Code Execution: Vulnerabilities in Claude Code (e.g., CVE-2025-59536) have allowed attackers to execute arbitrary commands on a user’s machine simply by having them open a malicious repository.
- Data Leakage/Privacy: Claude may access, expose, or share sensitive personal information or proprietary company data.
- Supply Chain Attacks: Attackers can exploit the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to exfiltrate data, acting with the same privileges as the AI tool.
- “ShadowPrompt” Attacks: Recent findings have shown that zero-click attacks can be used to steal sensitive data via the Claude Chrome extension.
- Unreliable Output: Probabilistic behavior means the same prompt can produce different, potentially harmful or incorrect results.
SA
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Ok, Laurent, and SoulAsylum., I think I’ve gotten to a bottom on this….
- first point, I did install the full new Claude with its issues, and Norton does NOT get upset about it.
- …at first, nor just running the Claude app. But as SoulAsylum may outline, it very possibly could at any agent operations if you used those (all the I’ll run Excel for you, etc., etc.). I am not going to try that.
- I’ll go into details below, but the answer that recommends itself to me, is, at this point, don’t install or leave installed the Claude app from installer.
- Instead, run Claude on the web. This invokes no agents, and gives you full Claude llm services just as the app would.
- If you want to run Claude Code, just do the npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code method, and add any plugins required on your developer app. This way it’s independent, works fine, and I did check again to make sure just now.
Ok, so what exactly is going on? The following straight from the Claude horse’s mouth…
- If you were running a previous install of the Claude app, as I had been, it would have failed silently after 11 Feb.
- If you then or otherwise installed with the newer downloadable installer, two things would happen:
- it would insist you turn on Developer Mode on Windows, to allow the install at all. This is dangerous and not for most persons, as I’ll outline below
- If you did turn on Developer Mode, as I was willing to experiment, you’ll then be asked to go forward once you restart the installer.
- Here there is a hidden option which is very important: If you say NO, then you’ll get offered to install only the Claude App, without any of the CoWork or other Agent abilities.
- Given how broken all of this is, and that Anthropic has known about it, with full complaint prominent on Github Issues alone, which are being ignored, I would certainly not myself want any of the CoWork. A very experimental person who was willing to risk new kinds of malware, etc. on some experiment machine is able to try it.
- Given all about this installer mess, and that they haven’t fixed it for two months, removing the developer mode requirement and making Agent CoWork etc. a clear optional choice, I’d avoid this entirely as Claude itself recommended, just run the independetnt apps as above.
- if indeed tempted to tempt fate, I’d at least turn off developer mode again after installing. It looks like they have just been lazy about providing a better installer which doesn’t require this way of laying your computer open to rogue installers downloade on you by malware.
I’m just uninstalling all the mess, and will use Claude from the web. It works very well with all its deep capabilities and thoughtful approach there. These app developers appear to be a run fast, blast engagement, break things unfortunate operation in a company with many pots boiling, if seemingly the best intended.
p.s. If you run Claude on the web in Chrome, you can use the Chrrome three-dot menu Cast, Save, and Share, item Install page as app, and you’ll get a Desktop icon which will raise Claude like an app, in its own sized window. You may get an overlay of Chrome starting first, if it wasn’t already open; just close or hide that as you please, to see the Claude ‘app’..
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No, consuming CPU cycles and adding up the memory usage without stopping (I have seen it to arrive to 8 GB before I was forced to reboot to regain control of my PC) is not what it is intended to do… And this continues to happen after the “bad” Claude app is closed.
This is a bug.
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Did you thoroughly read the last post from Nrr-nortn? Theirs is a very detailed explanation and the BEST way to use Claude going forward. The use of agents from within Claude are the issue, Norton, is doing what it should.
In your case there has to be something also triggering the extended use of CPU usage. Have you tested your apps for what the triggers are? TIA.
Regards,
SA
I have read and fully understood that post, it essentially says not to install Claude with the Cowork feature.
It contains a few inaccuracies, by the way, because the latest Claude installer does not ask to enable Developer Mode, and in any case, I hope that Norton supports that Windows feature.
The fault in Norton is triggered even without enabling any agent in Claude, if you understand what I mean, simply by installing it with the Cowork feature and opening the app. The CPU and memory usage by Norton continues also after closing the app, even after uninstalling it.
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I reinstalled Claude, Node, Norton, reset all settings but the problem persists (Claude code in Gitbash, Powershell, IntelliJ).
However, I’ve found something new : when I use Claude code in VSCode (using offical Anthropic plugin), everything is fine !
Somehow, Claude Code in VSCode does not trigger Norton Software Analyzer…
Does that make sense for anyone ?
Not sure about Claude in VS Code, I didn’t had the time to test it, but I had the same experience: starting Claude code in a standalone shell or in the IntelliJ plugin triggers the problem.
As I cannot stop working and no real workaround seem to exist, I had to temporarily switch to another AV.
Someone please post a note here when the problem has been solved.
RESOLVED — and my laptop can breathe again!
Same issue as described above. I was running Claude Code with VS Code, sometimes 4-5 windows at a time (yes, I like to live dangerously 
). I also had the Claude desktop app installed from a while back that I barely used.
For the past week, Norton Software Analyzer decided it was going to fully adopt my CPU as its own personal playground. Fans screaming, laptop burning, work suffering. Not ideal when it’s your livelihood!
Here’s the exact fix that worked for me:
-
I removed the Claude Desktop and disabled Windows Developer Mode as described earlier in this thread
-
Turns out my Claude Code was a standalone binary install (not npm) — sitting quietly at:
C:\Users[you].local\bin\claude.exe -
Removed it:
Remove-Item “$env:USERPROFILE.local\bin\claude.exe” -
Rebooted
-
Confirmed Node was current (mine was v24 — very happy. it must be +V18):
node --version -
Reinstalled Claude Code the clean npm way:
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
So far Claude Code and Norton are playing nicely together. No data loss for Claude Code. Peace has been restored to the kingdom. 
Hope this helps someone else avoid a week of fan noise!
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it was working, finally solved the issue 
@Julie777 Since you are the thread OP, I’m checking to see what your status is before closing out the thread. Other posters are seeing the issue as being mitigated. Thanks in advance.
SA
From my understanding the situation looks like this. Antropic accidentally leaked its source code for Claude Code and now Norton is EXTRA cautious about anything connected with Claude Code. I couldnt even irm claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex as it was market by Norton as botnet basically. So, I assume we have to be patient untill this is resolved. This seems like not a bug but rather extra carefulness from Nortons side.
@Adrian_Ol Indeed so.
SA
It’s Norton issue not claude code, if you open claude code the norton analyzer goes crazy, and even if you kill all claude tasks it still takes about 5GB or ram and 100% of 4 cores of my cpu, even all claude processes are killed
Tried claude cli version, and desktop version, just by opening the app or just by typing claude in the terminal, it triggers the problem, even if you didn’t prompt anything
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I’m not using vs code version or the desktop version, i’m using claude code the cli version, uninstall and reinstall didn’t help.
i’m installing with:
curl -fsSL https:// claude.ai/install.cmd -o install.cmd && install.cmd && del install.cmd
as suggested in there quickstart page