Norton 360 says I'm guilty till proven innocent.

Norton 360 is preventing users from downloading my installer.

They don't say there's a virus but their 'File InSight' tool label it as something like:-

WS.Reputation.1

and when you research in the norton site it appears that WS.Reputation.1 files are a threat because the don't have "any" reputation based on things like:-

1.This program crash history is unknown.
2. Fewer than 5 users in the Norton community have used this file.
3. File was released less than 1 week ago.

So it appears they consider any 'new' file to be a threat untill proven otherwise. Guilty till proven innocent. The downloaded file is simply deleted.

A small hyperlink at the very bottom of the norton dialog allows the user to override norton's decision and restore and install but after such a scare I don't think many new users would do that.

I've got other files that are older. One file that's 3 months old is given a warning - user action required - but not deleted. And another over 1 year old is allowed through without any question. So it appears Norton is giving a lot of weight to how new a file is and how many people in the Norton Community have downloaded it.

My file is a new version and I'm currently releasing regular updates. How on earth am I supposed to make these new updates appear trustworthy.

Anyone else having this problem ? I'd suggest that you test your download. Create a VM and install Norton 360. Download it from CNET and you won't have to give a ccard to get the 30 day trial.

I don't know on what forum but I was reading another developer facing the same issue (it was with SmartScreen or some such). He ended up getting a certificate and that made the installer trustable. I'm not sure how much does that cost though, but you can take a look at that.

I forgot to say that my files are signed with my thawte code signing certificate.

I have been using Norton 360 for at least five years now and have learned that there are some settings within that will a) give you a chance to override as you found out while another part of Norton will simply delete specific threats.

Case in point, I fired up a program that was built back in the mid ninties and was event created by a team of programmers under Norton called Norton Commander for Windows. Well Norton 360 saw it as a threat and removed the executable bypassing the Recyle Bin. I have since disaboled this part of Norton.

Seems like you might warn users this could happen and how to circumvent via the override options Norton provides or ask them to disable Norton while installing your app. Norton will provide the user an option (I am not sure of the time period as I am not home) to shut Norton down and then auto-restart Norton in say 10 minutes.

Are you sure this is entirely based on "reputation?"

Reading several of their posts on this, they seem a little cagey about what all is taken into account. For example there may be "yellow flags" that combine with their crowdsourcing score to give you that thumbs down.

What installer technology are you using? Hopefully nothing that "packs" code into an executable. Some anti-malware scans such packed code for certain fingerprints and then red-flags the product outright if triggered by a match.

I agree with Kevin here. In my case any installer/Exe that I make in vb.net; Norton quarantines the file on the basis of "Sonar" check. Instead of spending money and getting my program certified from norton, I simply tell my clients to disable Norton till the time installation is finished and then simply adding the application to the trusted files in Norton.

This has worked so far with no problems :)