Norton Utilities 14 is good, but it does something I don't appreciate one bit. When cleaning junk files off my system, it will go and delete my login information and passwords for forums, such as this, or for the official forums for the computer game Sacred 2. As a result of this, I end up having to reset my passwords at site like that, as a result of Norton Utilities making this mess up.
I can understand what it does otherwise, but Norton Utilities deleting my login name and passwords from IE 8 for forums as such, as I listed is completely and totally uncalled for.
Welcome to the forum. Sorry that you are having problems with NU.
I believe we can solve this pretty easily. In the main Norton Utilities screen click on Clean Your Disks. When the next screen comes up click on Browsers at the top. You can set exclusions here to tell NU not to clean certain things. If you look on the bottom right you will see a list of items to clean. From what you describe I would suggest that you remove the checkmark for Cookies and Auto-Complete Form Data. Cookies is the most important in your case.
There is something else that Norton Utilities does, which ticks me off more than this. It leaves behind a .TMP file which is a temp file behind in the temporary files directory. I'm hoping this can be solved also.
Will post back on that other problem real soon.
This solved my problem. No to figure out why Norton Utilities leaves behind a .tmp file that can't be deleted in the temporary files directory and see if that can be gotten rid of.
Wish there was a manual for this program.
Message Edited by Nightowl1 on 12-21-2009 09:58 PM
The file in question is ~DF35.tmp. This really irk's me that this file can't be deleted, and there is no reason for Norton Utilities to be leaving this file behind.
Thanks for the information. I am not finding this file on my system and I've done a recent clean as well. What directory do you see this file in and why do you feel it was created by NU?
By the way I am not a Symantec employee just for the record but rather a customer like you.
Hopefully the original problem will no longer be an issue.
I did not say that this file was or was not created by NU, I simply said I do not see it on my system and I have also done a recent clean operation.
Are you logged on as Administrator or user with Admin rights? Did you check permissions on this folder and if necessary add your user name via the Security tab?
Give me a break, I'm the only one that uses this computer, so I'm logged in as the Admin at all times.
I'm right back to square one, I'm of the opinion that Norton Utilities is a piece of junk, and that it simply doesn't work. I turned around on a recent scan, and proceeded to delete every friggin log in name and password, even though there are cookies I'm keeping, along with Auto-Complete Form Data unchecked.
Why Symantec put it out with this many bugs is beyond me. I'm curious what Symantec has to say for themselves.
I done some more testing on the file you mentioned. I do see some ~DF files in this directory, just not with the same name. After just performing a clean operation with NU it would seem some of them do belong to NU and I also had trouble deleting them and I know I have full permissions on my setup.
Before you assume there is not a good reason for these files I would suggest you post a new topic on this and ask the question, whereupon we can get a Symantec employee to comment on this.
You are making an assumption that there is no reason for this and yet these files might well be integral to the proper operation of NU. You simply cannot know this until you post the question.
I am a software engineer and I won't make assumptions whether this is or is not a need for these files, so again I suggest you post a seperate thread with this question.
How is your testing going regarding the original issue?
As I have told you I am not Symantec and I am only here to try and help and as I mentioned in my last post I am a software engineer myself and a computer expert. And I do NOT make assumptions about whether a user has Admin rights or not. I have been in these forums a long time and I do NOT assume anything - I ask the questions to confirm.
Are you indicating that after setting these exclusion preferences you are still seeing the problem?
Again I am here to help but if you want to cop an attitude, then I'm done here! On the other hand if you want to work with me, I'll be more than happy to help.
Give me a break, I'm the only one that uses this computer, so I'm logged in as the Admin at all times.
Nightowl1,
Allen was asking a relevant question. Many people are rarely logged in as an Administrator. Microsoft advise that we don't always login as an Administrator.
Give me a break, I'm the only one that uses this computer, so I'm logged in as the Admin at all times.
I'm right back to square one, I'm of the opinion that Norton Utilities is a piece of junk, and that it simply doesn't work. I turned around on a recent scan, and proceeded to delete every friggin log in name and password, even though there are cookies I'm keeping, along with Auto-Complete Form Data unchecked.
Why Symantec put it out with this many bugs is beyond me. I'm curious what Symantec has to say for themselves.
Hi Nightowl1
AllenM is doing his level best to help with the issues you are having and you are being less than gracious and appreciative of that in both the content and tone of your replies. Please remember that this is a user to user forum where individuals like AllenM spend considerable amounts of the own time, for free, to assist people having issues with their computer systems.
I understand completely that you have some frustrations with your Norton software but lighten up on those non-Symantec people who are trying to help you.
I fixed the problem with the temp file business, by finding the setting to not have Norton Utilities start on bootup. This business with it deleteing login information is totally uncalled for and needs to be fixed in my opinion by Symantec and soon.
I really don't see how changing settings to Windows Vista, is going to straighten out what is clearly a buggy program, and has been from the start. The least Symantec could do, is acknowledge this problem and work to straighten it out, instead of keeping silent as can be, and not say anything.
I've about had it with this program, and am about ready to strip it from my system entirely as it is the only at this point and time, that I keep things on my system from getting messed up.
Again I understand your frustration with the software but that has nothing to do with me.
I have not seen you confirm if you set both exclusions I recommended earlier. Can you please go back into that screen and verify that both Cookies and Auto-Complete Form Data are not checked? Make sure and click on Save to save your settings.
You can also completely exclude IE from being cleaned by unchecking Internet Explorer on the left pane of that window.
This solved my problem. No to figure out why Norton Utilities leaves behind a .tmp file that can't be deleted in the temporary files directory and see if that can be gotten rid of.
Wish there was a manual for this program.
Message Edited by Nightowl1 on 12-21-2009 09:58 PM
Hi Nightowl,
I missed this earlier among the other things you were saying. You said this solved my problem. Does this mean that your original problem is no longer present?
If so, might I suggest that you mark this thread solved so that others will know it is no longer an issue? You can mark the post which you believe contains the answer by hitting the green solution button which only you can see.
Regarding the TMP files, I would suggest again that you post a new thread on this so that Symantec can respond to your concerns.
I am sure there is a good reason for the files being there but if you want to know the reason then you need to post the question. Every software program out there stores files on the computer which are integral to proper operation of the software, likely this is the same. And if there is a problem where NU is unintentionally leaving files behind, yet more reason for you to post this in a new thread to gain visibility.
By the way there is a manual on NU. Click Help > Quick Start Guide. From that window is a link to an on-line guide.
Welcome to the forum. If you set NU startup to disabled it should not load when Windows boots up but once you run NU and then click the red X it will unfortunately revert back to the task tray.
Is this the behavior you are seeing?
Symantec does know about this and I am hoping that they change the behavior in an update at some point.
Once you have run NU and click the red X you will need to right click on the icon and select Close.
Norton Utilities is, strangely enough, a suite of utility programs designed with your machine's health in mind. They encompass a range of system diagnosis, cleaning and optimisation tools, with all the programs neatly ensconced inside the traditionally yellow Norton front-end.
