263194 - Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus Only Uses IE to View Virus Details

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Description

[David E. Ross]

If Norton Anti-Virus (NAV) detects a virus, the NAV Log Viewer displays the path
to the affected file and the ID of the virus.  The ID is a link for obtaining
further details about the virus from the Symatec Web site.  NAV is hard-coded to
use only IE to display those details.  Having disabled IE (by changing its name
to IEXPLORE.EXE-x) because of the flood of security vulnerabilities, I cannot
view any details about detected viruses.   

I sent E-mail to Symantec about this.  Their replay said: 

In your message you wrote:
>How can I get Norton to use Mozilla as its browser to 
>provide the indicated virus information? 

David, please be informed that Norton AntiVirus (NAV) uses IE as the default
browser and you cannot configure NAV for any other browsers. I suggest that you
upgrade your IE to version 6.0.

Comment 1

[Russell Odom]

Suggestion: replace iexplore.exe with a stub program that launches
Mozilla/Firefox. My programming isn't up to it, but anyone else fancy trying?

Found a reference to the command line switches for iexplore.exe here:
http://www.computerstodayinc.com/takecontrolofie.htm

Comment 2

[Dave G]

Norton will not respond to request for assistance in dealing with Norton System
works cleanup.  Said would only clean temp files created with IE. 
I have had trouble going to Norton site to download recent virus updaters.  Keep
getting error message that says my subscription is up, when I still have till
December. 

Comment 3

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Is Norton still maintaining this position? I find it hard to believe they could ignore 30-40% of their customers at this point.

Comment 4

[David E. Ross]

The problem was seen when an actual virus or other hostile intrusion was detected.  I haven't received such an attack in a long time, so I haven't been able to test this.  

I just now checked the Online Virus Encyclopedia.  It uses whatever browser is the user's default (SeaMonkey in my case).  However, that is not the same as when a virus is detected.  

If I am attacked again, I will test this bug report.  Please leave it open in the meantime.  

Comment 5

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

I'm sure you could find an attempt if you did a little googling ;)

Is Windows 98 still accurate for the affected OS?

Thanks for getting back to us on this one, David.

Comment 6

[David E. Ross]

I don't wear red in front of an angry bull.  And I'm not going to solicit a virus attack.  

My current operating system is Windows XP SP2.  My current Norton Anti Virus is 2005 (version 11.0.17.1).  My current browser is SeaMonkey 1.1.9.  If any of this changes when I can finally test this, I will indicate my configuration here (unless, of course, I close this as no longer being a problem).  

I might close this bug report as OBE (overcome by events) this coming summer.  When my current Norton Anti-Virus subscription expires late in July, I plan to change to a different anti-virus application.  

Comment 7

[David E. Ross]

This is still a problem in Norton Anti-Virus (NAV) 2005 version 11.0.17.1.  I did a scan of my PC for viruses this morning, and one was found.  When I tried to get details, NAV launched Internet Explorer even though SeaMonkey was already operating.  

Comment 8

[David E. Ross]

I have abandoned Norton Anti-Virus in favor of AVG Anti-Virus.  Thus, I have no way to tell if this is still a problem.  

I am marking this as WontFix only because there is no alternative called "Overcome by Events".