Windows 7 keeps telling me that I don't have any virus protection or firewall

NIS 2010 was working fine up until a few weeks ago.  I have since had several instances where Windows gave me a message saying that I had 3 important messages.  Among those three messages:  I didn't have any firewall or virus protection.  NIS seems to be working, but Windows says it isn't.  Rebooting often fixes the problem, but I got tired of doing that all the time.

 

I tried the steps outlines in http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/Windows-7-is-not-detecting-Norton-Internet-Security-2010/td-p/238259

 

That didn't work.

 

I chatted with Norton's Tech Support.  They edited the registry and that seemed to work for a while, but I once again started getting the 3 important messages.

 

I ran some software I bought called "Registry Mechanic" to clean out the registry.  That hasn't helped.

 

I used the Norton Removal Tool and totally re-installed NIS 2010 several times.  That works for a day or so, then I get the 3 messages again.

 

I have noticed that there seems to be a corelation between NIS 2010 and the printer driver software for HP Photosmart printers.  Every time I removed and re-installed NIS 2010 yesterday and today, my PC doesn't recognize the printer (I tried two different HP Photosmart printers (they were two different models - 6200 series and C4795)).  I have to re-install the printer drivers every time.  By the way, I did download the latest HP Photosmart printer software from HP's website each time.  I don't know if this corelation has anything to do with my getting the 3 important messages or not, but I have noticed that every time I remove and install NIS 2010 it loses the printer drivers.

 

Does anyone have any ideas?