Does Norton 360 have a Software Updater function activated through Device Security? My copy does not provide that option, but I've seen it on a relative's computer. Does it have to be activated, or is there a special download?
[Edit: Clarified Subject]
The Software Updater in smart scan is incorrect. When I run smart scan, the Software Updater wants me to update Microsoft Excel, which is part of Microsoft Office, from version 16.0.14391.20132 to 16.0.515028.20022. I have Micrsoft Office version 18.2110.13110.0 installed so both the installed version of Excel and the version Software Updater wants me to update to are incorrect. The Software Updater thinks that I have version 3.10.4 of Dell Support Assist installed while the actual version I have installed is 3.10.7. So I can't trust any of those updates in Software Updater. You would actually be having me rollback to a previous version of the software I have installed. And again to reach this Norton community page I have to turn off the Norton VPN.
That's a sure thing, the updater needs fixing because it is useless in its current form. Though it should have been tested before its release as half-baked features are not what we expect from Norton. I've been using it since 360 v. 1.0 released in 2007 and I've not had any disappointments, the Software Updater is my first.
I saw a 420 kb DLL that is linked to the software updater in the Engine folder and it looks like it is created by Norton (the game optimiser module for example that has simply been copied from Bullguard carries Bullguard's digital signature). It looks like the software updater has been designed by Norton and matches the high performance of the product, but most likely the Avira database that serves as a backbone is far from great.
The feature disappearing could be because others are seeing the same problems you are and they decided to pull the feature until they can fix things. That is part of the feature being throttled in bjm_'s post.
I had the software updater feature briefly appearing on all my devices, including Windows 11. It was really inaccurate, it reported Microsoft 365 apps as out of date and redirected me to the website to download them. I checked for updates via one of the apps (Word) and they are up-to-date. Suddenly, software updater became unable to scan and then it completely disappeared. Norton tried to install "Control Data" for the updater and failed. I had to reinstall the product to get rid of the LiveUpdate Error.
The feature is probably based on Avira Software Updater, but it seems like most of the apps are improperly reported and even if something is truly out-of-date, Norton can't update it automatically. It redirects to a rather generic link.
Also, the graphics performance of the updater window was terrible, opening the right-side menu was laggy, perhaps not GPU-accelerated.
All in all, terrible experience, not in line with Norton's values and products.
In future, before integrating anything from Avira and Bullguard (possibly from Avast soon), please put it through extensive testing, don't just adapt the DLL files and add it right in.
Smart Scan also seems to have disappeared now on my devices.
The Norton Data Protector just recently appeared on all my devices, after I spoke to support on Twitter. The feature was announced ages ago.
4. What's new in Norton 22.21.11.46?
- Introducing Software Updater feature:
The Software Updater feature in your Norton product helps keep supported third party programs up-to-date to eliminate security vulnerabilities.Please note:
- Some of the features are being throttled
- Norton 22.21.11 supports: Windows 7 SP1 with SHA2, Windows 8, 8.1 and Windows 10
- Norton 22.21.11 targets versions 22.21.10.40, 22.21.10.37, 22.1.9.25, 22.21.9.22, 22.21.8.62.
- This update is not available for maintenance mode OSes (Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 with no service pack)
4. What's new in Norton 22.22.1.58 ?
Additional enhancements to the Software updater feature (like enabling tile in dashboard)
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