I work from home and started using Norton 360 recently, about when I first started posting on this board actualy, as I got a new PC. My IT guy switched everyone to Norton 360 and that was the first thing he had me install. They give me the software and I install it.
Once 360 was on it was time to install my production packages, MS Office, Adobe CS5 and several other packages related to what I do, graphic and video editing.
One thing I noticed is, once all my software was installed, was that both boot time and general system responsiveness seemed to suffer and get generally slow. For example, my logo screen, after typing in my user name, would now sit there spinning much longer than normal, I would boot into an all white screen and my task bar, wallpaper and icons would slowly trickle on etc... I did not get any specific times on boot to a usable desktop but when the company used Comodo Internet Security, boot time and overall system performance was very good.
I tried something very stupid I know but I had to know. Once my system was all installed and ready to go I did an Acronis system image and fully uninstalled Norton, I even used the uninstall utility to be sure all was uninstalled. I rebooted and it was like night and day. The boot time was about half and I booted almost right into a working desktop. This proved to me at least it was not the software I use that slowed me down but somehow Norton itself.
I re-imaged my system so I was right back to where I was before and the same slowness came back.
My ultimate question is should I fully uninstall Norton 360 and reinstall it. Perhaps something happened during installation of the other software etc,,, I don't know. Do you think it might help? I know I will have to set it all up again and I don't care. I am starting to like Norton and want to use it but the delays are driving me nuts.
Did you have any security software installed on your system prior to installing N360? You mentioned new PC, even most new PC's come with a trial version of Norotn or McAfee installed. If that is the case, those programs have to be removed prior to installing N360.
Please let us know if you had anything (and what it was) installed prior to N360 and we'll be able to assist you better.
I think reinstalling Norton 360 will help in this case. Also, make sure that you do not use any other security products along with Norton 360. Using two security products together can cause this problem.
Download and run the Norton Remove and Reinstall tool to uninstall the Norton product and then reinstall it. This tool will download the product after it removes the installed one.
You didn't read the whole post. I mentioned I had Comodo Internet Security installed.
I asked about your new PC, I thought you were making a general statement in regards to another (old) PC you had used - but it doesn't matter. There may be some remanents of the old program which conflicted with the install of N360. I would suggest the following prior to following
and follow the suggestions toward the bottom of the page under the heading: Removing Comodo Internet Security with Automatic Removal Tool (Recommended)
Keep in mind that there will always be a slowness in boot when there is any security software installed. It has to do its work and it doesn't seem to matter what product it is. I have Comodo on one machine and it is slow as sin to get everything open the first time. Thunderbird and Firefox both take forever to start and even the gadgets take time to get on and working. I find NIS to actually load faster on my primary system.
Would I be better to start by doing a "repair" install? That is if N360 supports that. Is there a repair option from the uninstall menu? And if that does not help then reinstall?
Yank, Yeah I used that COMODO removal tool but I still had CCE (COMODO Cleaning Essentials on. Which even though it is a portable app I think it puts something in the registry and or in the system32 driver folder once you run it. I had to use a tool built by a user to get that out. I think the problem with Norton is that I put it on first before ALL of my other software, even Malwarebytes which works great with Norton and I can't live without.
I read that Norton sometimes has a problem if many other programs are installed after it and it, for some reason, likes to be fresh and the last thing installed. So I will do the next best thing, uninstall and reinstall so all the files are untouched.
OK, reinstalled, restored my Identity Safe and reconfigured everything the way I like. Everything, but one thing, is peachy.
I can't really use the backup. See I do graphic imaging and I have about 70 gigs (at least at any one time, maybe more) that I backup to my external drive about 1-3 times a week. I tried setting up a Norton backup job to do it but I think it is too much for it to handle.
Usually about 5 minutes into it Norton starts popping up telling me that the backup is using a large amount of processor power. Then the backup slows to a crawl and it has only succeeded once out of about 5 times. Each other time it hangs on a file about 25% through, never the same file so it's not like there is a corrupt file or something, and seems to lock up. I have to end the process to stop it.
Also I find the facts that 1) The Virtual drive Norton puts in my computer browses the contents SO SLOW I can't be bothered and 2) The data on my external is put into some kind of proprietary format that I cannot recover from if Norton were to fail.
I am up for suggestions but for now I turned it off.
Can't address your main issue, but as for post-failure restores, I believe there's a file "arestore.exe" that's put on your backup drive for those situations.
Ahh I was wondering about that. I try not to invoke odd EXE's even when they seem to be related to trusted programs. I would then assume it would restore the files to the source drive and keep the folder structure?
OK, reinstall worked for a while and I have boot protection set to normal now (default) but now I am getting a slow load to my working desktop again <see 1st post>
Any ideas on how to speed up the boot time to a nice hot usable desktop?
From the main page of N360, select Settings> Antivirus and on the Automatic Protection Tab > Click on the ? on the Boot Time Protection Line. You can read the Help info on this topic and try the different settings to see if there is any change your boot time.