Hey everyone. I've done my share of searching on this topic but can't find an answer anywhere. There's no rhyme or reason, nor does XP (SP3) discriminate which programs it keeps running. Here's a scenario:

I get done working in Photoshop. I close it down with the "X" button in the upper right - like I do with all my programs when I shut them down. I then decide to surf the web. When I'm done surfing the web, I close down firefox. I want to do something else in Photoshop so I open it again, do what I have to do, and shut it down. At this point, I have NO programs open

BUT

If I go into task manager, I see that I have TWO instances of Photoshop still running and one of Firefox! All eating up system memory. If I open up Photoshop again, I'll have THREE instances of Photoshop. It doesn't matter what program I open/close - they never really close! I checked once and had SIX instances of Firefox running in the background once when not one Firefox window was open.

What would cause this? I have Norton 360 running and it doesn't find a thing as far as malware/trojans.

Anyone else have this problem? The reason I found out in the first place is because I have ObjectDock running and it has indicator arrows over programs that are open. To my surprise, programs that I shut down still have arrows on them and, lo and behold, they're running in Task Manager.

BTW: I have a desktop and laptop and have the problem on both!


Thanks in advance!

get rid of norton for starters it can affect programs in this way because of the way it restricts programs on your PC.

grab AVG or AVAST if you dont feel safe online.

I was thinking it could be Norton, but why would it keep them from closing down completely? If I use the file/exit procedure to close down, I don't have the problem. I only have it when I close the program with the "X" button up top.

Norton has an active memory scanner which scans running programs constantly while they are running. It could be possible that Norton is keeping them alive in your memory and hogging the resources. It's worth a shot to just disable it and see if you have the problem still, you don't have to completely uninstall it.

I agree though, that AVG or Avast would treat you better. I couldn't even ping my own IP address with Norton.

Crap. Duly noted. I like 360 because, other than this problem, my computer runs great. Nice, fast, and optimized. And 360 probably has the lowest usage of resources of any of the big suites. I'll disable it and get back to you guys. It totally makes sense because it's installed on both my PC's and they both have the same problem.

I'm having a similar problem with a Cobol developement tool from Acucorp called Acubench. After shutting it down, it continues to run in the background. If I try and open it again by clicking the shortcut on the desktop, nothing happens. I have to go into the task manager and kill the process before I can restart the application. And it all started right after installing Norton 360!

It's definitely N360. Talked to Norton. They're aware of the problem and working "diligently" to fix it. I don't remember this problem with v1 of 360. Might revert back to that.