Norton Antivirus does not report its status to the new Windows Security Center, causing people to get an alarming bubble onscreen saying their computer “might be at risk,” when in fact the only problem is that Windows can’t be sure whether Norton Antivirus is up to date.
According to one bit of industry gossip, Symantec doesn’t want to open up its programs so that people get an accurate report in the Windows Security Center. They want Windows to remain uncertain about NAV’s status so the Windows Security Center is incomplete. Maybe I misunderstood, or maybe there’s more to the story and Symantec is taking a reasonable position. All I know is, Service Pack 2 has been out for a couple of weeks and people are getting unnecessarily alarming bubbles about something they shouldn’t be alarmed about. Service Pack 2 has been in development and testing for a long time. This is inexcusable.
When I ran LiveUpdate yesterday, I got a new message from Norton Antivirus – something like, “Do you want to allow other programs to access Norton Antivirus?” The “No” choice was marked “Recommended,” and there was no clue what it was all about. I honestly don’t know what that means. If it means Symantec is “recommending” that people continue to get alarming bubbles about their computer being “at risk,” without explaining clearly what’s going on, they’re out of their minds.
