Vista - Either erroneous Windows Security Alerts or I got a Major Problem

After logging off one user account and logging onto another, Windows security
alerts have persisted. Basically, it says there is no firewall, no antivirus
program and no malware program. System has Norton firewall, Norton Anti-virus
and Windows Defender.
In response to the Windows Deefender issue, we took start Windows Defender.
System returns message that it cannot obtain definitions. We then started
Windows defender from program list and it reports that everything is okay.
Third Party test of firewall and anti-virus shows these programs are indeed
working.
Any ideas?

sgmurray wrote:
> After logging off one user account and logging onto another, Windows security
> alerts have persisted. Basically, it says there is no firewall, no antivirus
> program and no malware program. System has Norton firewall, Norton Anti-virus
> and Windows Defender.
> In response to the Windows Deefender issue, we took start Windows Defender.
> System returns message that it cannot obtain definitions. We then started
> Windows defender from program list and it reports that everything is okay.
> Third Party test of firewall and anti-virus shows these programs are indeed
> working.
> Any ideas?


Guessing but...

Did you install Norton yourself or was it already on there when you got
the machine?

If you installed it did you install it for "All Users" or just the
current user, which likely was your default administrator account?

This is important (If Norton behaves that way) because it may not be
able to run as another user, which sounds like it may be your problem.

Wait for other suggestions, but IF you decide to try and fix this you
MUST get uninstall instructions from your version of Norton, if it says
to reboot in the middle of the process then you MUST do as it says and
then follow any new install instructions for your version. I say this
because if you don't follow to the letter you may well end up with a
system so trashed you'll have to reinstall it all.

Personally I wouldn't recommend Norton to my worst enemy (Well maybe I
would but that's another story) but all security software can be picky
about how it is uninstalled.

Thanks for the reply Charlie. But, I should have stated that all security
products were working on all accounts for the past month. We went from
apparently all secure to our current position of receiving messages that
nothing is working. Accoridning to the messages, our security went out the
window.

"Charlie Tame" wrote:

> sgmurray wrote:
> > After logging off one user account and logging onto another, Windows security
> > alerts have persisted. Basically, it says there is no firewall, no antivirus
> > program and no malware program. System has Norton firewall, Norton Anti-virus
> > and Windows Defender.
> > In response to the Windows Deefender issue, we took start Windows Defender.
> > System returns message that it cannot obtain definitions. We then started
> > Windows defender from program list and it reports that everything is okay.
> > Third Party test of firewall and anti-virus shows these programs are indeed
> > working.
> > Any ideas?
>
>
> Guessing but...
>
> Did you install Norton yourself or was it already on there when you got
> the machine?
>
> If you installed it did you install it for "All Users" or just the
> current user, which likely was your default administrator account?
>
> This is important (If Norton behaves that way) because it may not be
> able to run as another user, which sounds like it may be your problem.
>
> Wait for other suggestions, but IF you decide to try and fix this you
> MUST get uninstall instructions from your version of Norton, if it says
> to reboot in the middle of the process then you MUST do as it says and
> then follow any new install instructions for your version. I say this
> because if you don't follow to the letter you may well end up with a
> system so trashed you'll have to reinstall it all.
>
> Personally I wouldn't recommend Norton to my worst enemy (Well maybe I
> would but that's another story) but all security software can be picky
> about how it is uninstalled.
>

I'm having the same problem with Windows Defender as well and will be
interested to find a fix. I've even gone as far as to remove Norton from my
system and replace it with Windows Live One Care, but still no luck.

No matter what I do, Windows Security Center won't allow me to run Windows
Defender.

"sgmurray" wrote:

> After logging off one user account and logging onto another, Windows security
> alerts have persisted. Basically, it says there is no firewall, no antivirus
> program and no malware program. System has Norton firewall, Norton Anti-virus
> and Windows Defender.
> In response to the Windows Deefender issue, we took start Windows Defender.
> System returns message that it cannot obtain definitions. We then started
> Windows defender from program list and it reports that everything is okay.
> Third Party test of firewall and anti-virus shows these programs are indeed
> working.
> Any ideas?