Symantec Norton Bug Internet Security At Risk Red X Icon Taskbar Tray

Let's call this what it is: a software bug! Because if it is intentional, then Symantec has become Big Brother and is now dictating what users MUST have installed on their browsers, even if the user does NOT want those items installed. That sounds like what the US Government says China does to their people, doesn't it? But I digress...

For the second time, after a one week (7 days) gap of time, Symantec has inflicted (or should I say infected) my computer with their Symantec Norton Bug - Internet Security At Risk - Red X Icon in the Taskbar tray.

Apparently this bug has existed for awhile, based on the comments I found here.

The symptoms on a Windows 10 computer: the Symantec Norton Security icon in the Taskbar tray changes to show a Red X. After clicking on the icon, the Norton LifeLock Security window displays these messages for the Internet Security tab: Internet Security At Risk and Browsing at Risk. (See image above.)

If one clicks on the Why fix this? beneath the Fix Now button, and selects the ignore choice, it does nothing: the red alerts remain.

Having an always Red X icon displayed leads to one of two things: 1) the user ends up ignoring it altogether, which means that real problems that occur will be ignored! 2) the user has to uninstall and reinstall Norton, perhaps gaining a one week reprieve from the software bug, before having to do choice 2 again! (I lost 40 minutes of time for choice 2. Is Symantec going to reimburse me for that?!)

Shortly before the bug reappeared, I received a popup dialog from Norton, about Internet Security not being set up, or some such, and asking me something along the lines of two choices: Remind me again later or Don't ask me again. I chose Don't ask me again, and shortly after that, the Red X icon appeared. So the next time I see that question, I'll try choosing Remind me again later, or close the window without making any choice, and see if the icon remains green, which is how it SHOULD appear even if I CHOOSE NOT to install their browser add-ons.

In the meantime, before my subscription comes up for renewal, if anyone has recommendations for other anti-virus programs that don't dictate what the user has to install, please leave a comment, so I can look into changing from Norton to another provider. Because unless Symantec fixes this bug, I won't be renewing with them.