I'm running NIS 2012 on a Windows 7 64-bit Professional PC. Ever since I upgraded NIS 2011 to 2012, Quick Scan seems to run all the time. When it is running it sometimes prevents programs & games from starting until it is finished. Yesterday it took 3 minutes for Firefox to start because Quick Scan was running. I've even noticed that it'll start even when I'm playing a game, bring the game to a crawl.
The only way I know to prevent Quick Scan from running all the time is to stop Live Update from running automatically. Is anyone else having the same problem I'm having or could it be that there's something incompatible between NIS 2012 and Win 7 (I didn't have this problem when I was running NIS 2011)?
In NIS 2012 Quick Idle Scans run automatically and are not allowed to be turned off. However, you can turn off a Full Idle Scan under SETTINGS -> COMPUTER SCAN -> FULL SYSTEM SCAN - >OFF. This may help you.
Just to let you know, I have had 2 instances of Quick Idle Scan running under XP, SP3 (with Full System Scan turned OFF) doing light work and I would like to share this link with you:
These quick scans have been happening with Full System Scan and Idle Time Optimizer set to OFF. Again, it seems that I only have this problem whenever Live Update runs. If I turn off Live Update (which I really don't want to do), Quick Scans don't run. And, again, I never had this problem with NIS 2011.
rzn6jw111 wrote:, .... it seems that I only have this problem whenever Live Update runs. If I turn off Live Update (which I really don't want to do), Quick Scans don't run. ....
Hi rzn6jw111
I think that the situation is this:
NIS has an internal rule that requires a Quick Scan to be run immediately whenever the most recent LiveUpdate download involves a virus definition update.
Apparently, the reason for this is that your hard disk might already have one of the newly identified viruses present, and if so it wouldn't be detectable as a virus until a new scan is performed. (The file might already have been scanned earlier and might already have been marked as "Trusted" in the eaerlier time frame before the file had become identified as a virus.) When the Quick Scan is performed, it is checking to see if your Windows system area already has any of the newly identified viruses present, and if so it will immediately deal with them so that they will not be able to cause a problem.
If you switch LiveUpdate to OFF, then you will not get new virus definition updates, and, of course, there will be no need for NIS to run a Quick Scan to see if any of your current files match the new virus definitions -- because with LiveUpdate switched off, there are never any new virus definitions to deal with !
RIchD
===========
Another point:
According to Symantec, it is OK to switch LiveUpdate OFF for a while, but they remind you that you must eventually run it manually to keep your definitions up to date.
About running LiveUpdate
[...] Some Symantec products run LiveUpdate automatically to keep your protection up to date. If you do not use Automatic LiveUpdate, you should run LiveUpdate once a week. [...]
Thanks again for the information. I'll run the Full Scan and let you know what happens; however, each quick scan comes up with zero errors and I have a custom scan that only runs a full scan of my C: drive (I have 4 other drives so running a complete system scan would take overnight) once a week and that comes up clean too.
Back with you tomorrow after I run the Full scan overnight.
I'm running NIS 2012 on a Windows 7 64-bit Professional PC. Ever since I upgraded NIS 2011 to 2012, Quick Scan seems to run all the time. When it is running it sometimes prevents programs & games from starting until it is finished. Yesterday it took 3 minutes for Firefox to start because Quick Scan was running. I've even noticed that it'll start even when I'm playing a game, bring the game to a crawl.
The only way I know to prevent Quick Scan from running all the time is to stop Live Update from running automatically. Is anyone else having the same problem I'm having or could it be that there's something incompatible between NIS 2012 and Win 7 (I didn't have this problem when I was running NIS 2011)?
Hi, rzn6jw111. Some things to be aware of:
1. The "Quick Scan" performed by NIS 2011 is far less detailed than the Quick Scan performed by NIS 2012. The 2011 Quick Scan is over in seconds. The 2012 Quick Scan takes minutes. The reason for this is NIS 2012 looks for rootkits in far more detail than 2011 did - which means that 2012 Quick Scans are far more noticeable when multitasking.
2. There is a feature in NIS called "Silent Mode". It is used for precisely the purpose that you wish. The nice thing about Silent Mode is that you select the timeframe for which NIS will suspend its background tasks when you choose to enable Silent Mode. At the end of that timeframe NIS will automatically re-enable its background tasks and bring itself up to date. This prevents you from forgetting to turn off Silent Mode and eventually ending up with a badly out-of-date installation of NIS.
Google "Norton Internet Security Silent Mode" for more information - or Check the NIS Helpfiles for information on Silent Mode. Once you know how to set this up and configure it as you wish, you should be able to game without NIS Background Tasks eating your CPU at the precise moment you are about to capture the flag. <Murphy loses and claws the air in helpless frustration!>
Note: There is another possible way to deal with the problem you mention. You can configure "Quiet Mode" to be enabled when you run particular programs. Two instances for Quiet Mode are configured by default in an installation of NIS - you can add other triggers as desired. If you put your Game Executable in the "User Specified" section of the Quiet Mode trigger list - NIS should enter Quiet Mode for the duration of your Gaming Session - and then re-enable itself automatically when you exit the game. This may be exactly what you are looking for. However, there is a "gotcha". Do NOT leave the game running overnight or things like that - or you will induce an out-of-date state in your NIS as a result.
And you don't want to go there. Having an out-of-date NIS is dangerous.
Hi, Allen. Regardless of the noted issue in the quoted link, if rzn6jw111 can get NIS to suspend its background tasks, then a LiveUpdate event will not occur - and the subsequent Quick Scan will not therefore occur either. This should at least allow him to game without having his CPU randomly strangled, resulting in his game slowing to a crawl.
The temporary suspension of background tasks is is the design-intent of Silent Mode and Quiet Mode - regardless of whether there is a problem with Quick Scan or not. Thusly, the workaround I described may be helpful for rzn6jw111 - regardless of the high ccSvcHst.exe CPU-usage issue.
I ran a Full system scan overnight but that didn't help with the quick scan problem one bit. For instance, quick scan ran tonight at 21:15, 21:29, and 21:36, taking between 5 and 14 minutes for each scan. This is ridiculous!
Silent mode only has 1, 2 4, 6 and 24 hour time frames. It'd be nice to have a setting where you could specify like 7 hours or 14 hours, or something like that.
Anyway, I'm really considering turning off Live Update and hoping I remember to enable it for updates.
You know, if NIS can detect a 'Full Screen' application starting and suspend activities, why can't Quick Scan?
As AllenM mentioned in his previous post, we are aware of this issue where Quick Scan is interrrupting user activity. We are working on a fix for it. Please follow this thread. I will be updating the thread when an update is available with the fix.
