Norton Security 'silent' (in the background) upgrade issue

Desktop PC OS is Windows 10 Home (64-bit) v1903, updated to build 18362.356 on 11th Sept 2019, with Norton Security installed. A week later, on 18th September, my OS began showing that Norton Security Antivirus (NS AV) is turned OFF (although it is actually ON) and Windows Defender Antivirus (WD AV) is ON and is now downloading daily WD Definition Updates.

Security restrictions do not allow a user to manually switch one product OFF and switch another ON so it was necessary to uninstall and reinstall NS in order to get it to force Windows to turn OFF WD AV. All is OK now.

I suspect that a ‘silent’ Norton Upgrade on 18th September temporarily disabled NS AV while the upgrade took place and in this time period Windows enabled WD AV. After NS upgrade completed it seemed to work OK but the upgrade procedure failed to switch off WD AV and, temporarily, there have been two AV programs working at the same time.

I didn't notice any performance problems and I only noticed something was amiss when I saw the 'rotating arrow' indicating that something was happening in the background. I checked and found regular WD AV Definition updates had been installed.

Does anyone else have any thoughts as to how this could have happened? Has it happened to anyone else? Perhaps check your computer security status if you have Norton Security installed.

@wiganken -

I would cleanly uninstall NS and reinstall it, as something is amiss.

Follow here -

Download and run the Norton Remove and Reinstall tool

Please post back and advise.

Thanks.

wiganken said:

Thanks. As I mentioned in my second paragraph I did uninstall NS and reinstall it and it fixed it. I submitted the post in case others had the same problem and I thought it would help. I've marked it 'Solved' now.

Hi.

Yes, I know, but the technique is very important. You wouldn't believe how many people uninstall and reinstall NS the wrong way.

Glad to hear that all is well now. Using the above procedure is highly recommended to avoid future issues.

Cheers!