Norton Internet Security blocking and removing OptiMiser

[Ryan Moore]

We discovered a serious conflict between OptiMiser and recent versions of Norton Internet Security, which is a common anti-malware application included on many newer Windows machines. There are two components to the conflict:

(1) the firewall function of the Norton application is blocking external communication to/from OptiMiser is some cases. This results in a “communications error” from OptiMiser when a check for program or weather updates is made. You can prevent this issue by turning off the Norton firewall before checking for updates. If you use the ePortal, the same issue affects that type of communication, so turn off the firewall before Send or Receive.

(2) the anti-virus portion of the Norton application is preventing OptiMiser updates from completing, and in many cases actually REMOVING OptiMiser.exe from its installed location. We’ve seen this happen WHILE THE PROGRAM IS RUNNING. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to undo: go to the Norton Internet Security application console, go to Advanced, then Quarantine, and you should see “optimiser.exe” listed. Click “Options” then “Restore and exclude.” This will put OptiMiser back in place and, hopefully, exclude it from future scans. To prevent it from happening in the first place, you may be able to exclude OptiMiser from scans before it is identified as a threat (http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-Internet-Security-Norton/exclude-a-program-from-scans/td-p/873612). If that isn’t effective you would need to disable Norton antivirus or uninstall Norton entirely.

[Ryan Moore]

The Norton Security Suite has been particularly problematic in that it continues to detect OptiMiser as a threat. An OptiMiser user has recently called in with specific instructions for how to handle this for 2015 Norton Security Suite received through his Comcast subscription after he called Norton for assistance (Thank you, Michael R.!). Here are instructions he received from Norton Technical Support:
1) In Norton, navigate to Settings;
2) Navigate to Detailed Settings;
3) Go to Anti-Virus and then to Scans and Risks;
4) Scroll down to the section Exclusions/Low Risks, then look at Items to Exclude from Auto-Detect, SONAR, …
5) Click Add;
6) Add OptiMiser.

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