M1 chip with Parallels and Norton?

[Mark F]

I have a Mac Studio with up to date Monterey. I also run Parallels (v17) and Windows 11, and need to run an antivirus software program onthe WIndows side only. Is anyone running Norton with this configuration, that is , on the W11 side? On its System Requirements webpage Norton indicates that its software might not work with this configuration and before purchasing I'd love to know if it works for others. I've found out the hard way that McAfee does not work.

Thanks.

 

[Mark F]

Sorry, I've just noticed that Norton has a free 30 day trial so I can just download and find out.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

My recommendation on this front is to save your money. Take a snapshot of our Windows installation. Keep the data you need to access on that VM on an external drive and don't bother with the anti-virus.

When the machine, invariably, runs into trouble, just restore the safe snapshot and you're back in business. With your data on the external drive, you can pick up and continue.

 

[mfpv]

My recommendation on this front is to save your money. Take a snapshot of our Windows installation. Keep the data you need to access on that VM on an external drive and don't bother with the anti-virus.

When the machine, invariably, runs into trouble, just restore the safe snapshot and you're back in business. With your data on the external drive, you can pick up and continue.

I agree with that but Windows 11 includes Windows Defender which should give some degree of protection.

 

[lclev]

I run Windows 11 on Parallels 17 on my M1. I do not run any anti-virus on Windows 11. I let Windows Defender take care of any issues. I also do not let Windows 11 mess with my emails and I use Brave browser with shields up for any web needs. Most virus/malware issues come from email attachments and links or infected websites. A lot can be said for safe email and browsing practices.

Lisa

 

[ferrarr]

Windows has reliable anti malware protection. Just needs frequent updating.

 

[Mark F]

I run Windows 11 on Parallels 17 on my M1. I do not run any anti-virus on Windows 11. I let Windows Defender take care of any issues. I also do not let Windows 11 mess with my emails and I use Brave browser with shields up for any web needs. Most virus/malware issues come from email attachments and links or infected websites. A lot can be said for safe email and browsing practices.

Lisa

Thanks to all.

Is Firefox not sufficiently safe then? I thought that it also kept track of questionable sites and prevented the user from going there. Is this not correct? Also, in an article in PC Magazine, Defender was rated as significantly less capable than Norton.
I could go the snapshot route but that is kind of a nuisance and I might forget or get lazy. On my now gone iMac running Parallels 16/W10 I used McAfee for years and never had a problem. I guess I'm gunshy although I have taken the advice on this forum and do not run antivirus on the Mac side, only Malwarebytes and have not had a problem.

 

[lclev]

Thanks to all.

Is Firefox not sufficiently safe then? I thought that it also kept track of questionable sites and prevented the user from going there. Is this not correct? Also, in an article in PC Magazine, Defender was rated as significantly less capable than Norton.
I could go the snapshot route but that is kind of a nuisance and I might forget or get lazy. On my now gone iMac running Parallels 16/W10 I used McAfee for years and never had a problem. I guess I'm gunshy although I have taken the advice on this forum and do not run antivirus on the Mac side, only Malwarebytes and have not had a problem.

I don't use Firefox. No specific reason just don't so I have no info on it. As for anti-virus in Windows 11 - I get it. I am an IT and at work we have mostly Windows computers. I use a cloud based anti-virus called Sophos. I do like it and it also offers the ability to block certain types of sites which is requested by my bosses. I also use OpenDNS for filtering sites. I do use Malwarebytes for stand a lone scans if I see a problem on a Windows or Mac machine at work. On my mac I use DetectX Swift about once a month to scan for any issues.

Lisa

 

[Raz0rEdge]

At the end of the day, it all depends on what you are doing with your Windows installation. If you plan on using it like a regular Windows installation on the Internet, then you'll want to be diligent to ensure that you are safe.

I use VMWare for a windows VM but that installation has no Internet access. I download things from the Mac side and only run a couple of apps in there. With that, my installation has been completely safe.

 

[Rod]

I too use Brave browser but I am writing this in Firefox 100.0.2 (64-bit) because I have been investigating Firefox's recent new security options.
For example, Firefox now suggests the use of "Containers". This is an Mozilla add-on but an interesting one see: Multi-Account Containers | Firefox Help
As well as this optional add-on there is also a Facebook specific container but Multi-Account Containers also includes a dedicated container for Facebook.
It's essentially a way of sand-boxing a web site.
As well as this new add-on there is a new trial Total Cookie Protection option in the built in Privacy an Security preferences akin to Google's proposed FLoC concept.

Bottom line here, Brave is very good for security and privacy (especially tracking) but Firefox seems to be getting better and better all the time.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Thanks to all.

Is Firefox not sufficiently safe then? I thought that it also kept track of questionable sites and prevented the user from going there. Is this not correct? Also, in an article in PC Magazine, Defender was rated as significantly less capable than Norton.
I could go the snapshot route but that is kind of a nuisance and I might forget or get lazy. On my now gone iMac running Parallels 16/W10 I used McAfee for years and never had a problem. I guess I'm gunshy although I have taken the advice on this forum and do not run antivirus on the Mac side, only Malwarebytes and have not had a problem.

LOL! Man, I strongly advise not to trust anything in PC Magazine. Long before my Mac days, I was a Windows enthusiast involved in a Usenet group for Windows users helping other users like this site does. One observation I and others had made was that PC Magazine is HEAVILY biased to their advertisers. They literally look for excuses to give them their "coveted" Editor's Choice Award for various reasons. I still recall one time they gave Norton Antivirus an award over a competitor because they liked the user interface better. It performed more poorly compared to that competitor and some of the others, but HEY! We like it anyway! Now does that even make sense? Recommending the product that can't perform its core function better than the others? Seriously... they would do a "review" of, say a dozen products in a category, and give an Editor's Choice Award to half of them for one reason or another. Of course then all these companies would turn around and tout that their product won an award. It's a scam... all of it.

 

[Mark F]

A follow-up for this post. I have been working with Norton tech support and it has been kicked up to the "Level 3 Engineering" support team. So far they have not been able to get Norton to install but hopefully the Engineering people will have a solution. I will post further when I know.

 

[MSD17]

Would love to know if Norton has a working solution for installation on Apple silicon Macs.

 

[Mark F]

My specific issue was that Norton (nor McAfee) would install in a Parallels virtual machine running W11 when the underlying computer is an M1 chip Mac. I do not know if either program will install on the Mac side as I was not trying to do that. Sorry.

 

[MSD17]

My specific issue was that Norton (nor McAfee) would install in a Parallels virtual machine running W11 when the underlying computer is an M1 chip Mac. I do not know if either program will install on the Mac side as I was not trying to do that. Sorry.

Sorry, I’m also referring to the same issue. I’m running Win11 on my MBP16 M1 via Parallels and tried installing Norton in the VM environment and kept getting an error. So it appears there’s no working solution as of today. I guess all we can do at this point is use Win11 built-in security. I do have Norton already installed on the macOS side and that works fine.

 

[lclev]

Would love to know if Norton has a working solution for installation on Apple silicon Macs.

Why? I use to use Norton before but when Symantec bought them out it became too much of a resource hog. I am not sure if they have improved but I still would never use it. Also why do you think you need Norton? I do not run anti-virus on my M1 MBP and have never on any of my macs. Not needed.

Lisa

 

[mfpv]

As suggested earlier, I use Microsoft’s own already installed Defender AV program when running Windows 10 and 11 in VMs on my M1 Mac without any obvious issues.