Originally Posted by
drragostea
My brain is still foggy about this matter because I have not encountered the problem in some time. I should be able to answer it.
My best suggestion for you is to untick that option (lock the HOSTS file) if you are worried about editing the HOSTS file or using IE8. Oddly, I do not know how IE8 has anything to do with this.
I know Symantec's Norton is a bully when it comes to Spybot. I am puzzled on why an issue that was a year old would still exist today.
What you should do is just proceed to do whatever you do on a normal basis. It is until you encounter problems with the HOSTS file, then you should reinstall Spybot and then untick it.
Rather than uninstall Norton (a tedious process to me), I would suggest you disable it. In fact, disconnect your PC from the Internet and shut down Norton completely and then reinstall Spybot. That clears up the trouble of uninstall Norton and then reinstalling Spybot and then reinstall Norton again.
That should do the trick.
For the time being, do what you do until you face a problem that is HOSTS file related (like you can't edit it).