So here's the deal.

Completely fresh load of XP Home SP2. All patches, drivers, updates done.

Completely fresh load of Norton Internet Security 2002 + NAV.

Everything seems find, doing lots of updates to it. After the last, or 2nd to last update, NAV comes up disabled on startup. Hmm

If you right-click NAV icon (with red X over it) and select "Enable Auto-Protect"; nothing happens.

If you go into NAV and click Enable from there, it gives a popup Windows error like this:

---------------------------
[titlebar] "Internet Explorer Script Error"
[Yellow exclamation] "An error has occurred in the script on this page."
Line: 887
Char: 5
Error: Unspecified error.
Code: 0
URL: res://C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\NAVUI.dll/navstats.htm

"Do you want to continue running scripts on this page?"
[Yes/No]
--------------------(click yes or no doesn't change anything)

I did some quick googling and didn't find much. Get lates updates (check), get latest IE (check), get latest SEVINST for NAV (check), check the services (check), is admin user (check).
All seems good.

Now here is where it gets remotely interresting.

If you go into services (start-run "services.msc") and STOP the "Norton Auto Protect Antivirus Service" service. Well, it stops. But then if you right click NAV and click Enable, it actually will enable and turn on. Then everything works fine. You can even disable and re-enable NAV and it still works.
But if you restart, it's back to disabled with errors.

If I set the service to "manual", then NAV starts up as disabled, but it will successfully enable itself at this point.

So basically, when the Norton Auto Protect Antivirus Service is set to "Automatic", NAV is wrecked on startup and won't come back unless you manually shutdown the service and then click enable in NAV.
And again, this happened after one of the last update sets it downloaded. Cause it would start up good when it was first installed.

Okay. Well disabling and starting NAV is not an acceptable work around.
Reloading NIS is not either. It shouldn't be doing this anyway, it's all entirely fresh load of Windows and NIS.

Something somewhere is the cause. A file in the wrong place, wrong permissions to a key in the registry? A NIS update I have to download? Some IE trick? Reregistering some DLL?

Any ideas? Thanks.

Yeah, get rid of it.
Symantec has its own way of making crippleware, by dropping support after something is 3 years old. Your NAV-2002 is falling in this category already.
Your best bet would be Uninstall (using RNAV2002.exe from Symantec, if they still have it), then REinstall if you still insist on having bloatware.

Alternatively, go the free way (AVG + Kerio/Sygate), less hassle, less bloat.

Simple Solution

It sounds to me like when you have been updating your software you ain't been restarting if the program asked you to. I know, I know this version of windows is suppose to stop all that but never mind.

It sounds like you have a glitch in your startup files, its probably calling an old dll to NAV, just put the NAV and Internet secuity disks back into your machine and start them up as if your going to install the program. Then run the installation program and instead of uninstalling as previously suggested just click on repair. Don't forget to restart when its finished. Should sort it out for you.

Unfortunately, the system isn't mine so they want their old junk. But I'll talk to them and see if I could get them something decent.
Problem is, they will throw the classic line "well it worked BEFORE". Then I'm toast.

As for repairing it. This particular CD doesn't seem to be a real version. The CD looks exactly like a NIS CD, yellow and what not. But when you open it, it has Compaq logo by the installer. And it only gives you 2 install options:
1. Install Norton AntiVirus
2. Install Norton Internet Security & Norton AntiVirus.

If I choose "2", it only gives the option to remove, not repair or anything.

But interrestingly enough, if I choose "1", it says "The system administrator has set policies to prevent this installation".

And of course I am a admin account, the only user account on here. Which just goes to show NIS2002's lack of support for the way XP works.

It's obvious now that XP is not allowing NIS to do what it wants. Some kind of permissions problem or what have you.

That's enough for me, I'm removing this crap and selling them something else. I don't have time to fix Norton for the billionth time. I personally like Panda's virus scanner and firewall myself.

This leads to a different question though. Where can I find this "policy" anyway? I've always needed to edit or view it, but the MMC for it is never there. And I know these policy restrictions are spread all over the registry. Is there maybe a 3rd party tool that can show policies that are in effect for a particular user? Or namely, "restrictive" policies?

Thanks guys

This happened with me on Windows 2000 every 4-5 months. I opted for one of RBS's work arounds - I went for AVG. I got the paid for version as I can run all five machines from a central server for less than half the the price of Norton.

Boots

I've used AVG for years, it's done just fine on XP on my laptop. The new version is a lot better.

At one point I had used Avast but did not like it half as much. Plus when I put Avast alongside Zonelabs firewall, I was BSODing all the time.

However, "selling" Panda is bigger $$ then installing freebees

Panda costs what, $70 ? So for how much do you sell it, $80 with $10 for you?
If you install free AVG and ask $20 for the cleanup/installation, they are happy, and you made double!
It would boost your reputation of having 'very reasonable' prices!

AH, but a catch therein. No we pay neigh only about $10 per Panda Platinum! That's with the firewall. Sells for $35. It's the OEM CD and key with a Panda sleeve. Not bad I must say. And our price for loading an Antivirus (plus removing old), is $30.

Anyhoo, as good as AVG is, the company can't load it if it isn't endorsed by us. The customer can load it themselves. Or else we "usually" only sell our own AV.

On the flipside, the customer now has their PC, with NIS removed, and he can do as he wishes. And I did inform him that Symantec would soon be, if not already, dumping all support for it. I know 2000 and I think 2001 are already caput.

Thanks again.