It has come to our notice, plus several of our users, that certain Norton Security and other security related packages take it upon themselves to remove certain files from your system, which can cause untold issues with PFE.
Following on from reports of TGS failing to work since the update to 2.9 it was discovered that Norton Security had removed the file named TGS.EXE from the main PFE folder.
We have also had one user who could not start PFE at all, which was due to another file (SCLabel.ocx) being removed from the Windows\System32 folder.
In view of this here are some tips from users who have now rectified these issues.
Norton 360
1: Main splash screen click on settings.
2: Click on Virus and Spyware protection.
3: Click on tab - File Exclusions.
4: Under the two section 'which disks to exclude from...' click on the tab "ADD" and then search for the PFE folder and add it to the exclusion list.
(Please note: This user repeated the above steps for PFE, FDC, FSX and FS2004 to prevent files from getting deleted)
Spyware Terminator
Spyware Terminator identifies and removes a file named SCLabel.ocx from \Windows\System32. After that PFE will not run!
Do NOT remove this file. It is NOT spyware and is an ActiveX control for displaying most of the text that appears on the PFE screens. Without it PFE will NOT run! You can configure Spyware Terminator to ignore it rather than remove it. If you have removed it you will need to reinstall PFE.
General
You should turn on notifications of program changes with a prompt within such security programs wherever possible, so the YOU remain in control of what is or is not deleted.