Earlier this week, the Parental Control feature vanished from Total Security’s options in my System Tray. This appeared to be the result of an automatic update to the application, bringing it to version 21.1.15.500. Last year, a similar update required fully uninstalling Total Security, manually tinkering with some files, and reinstalling the previous version. I didn’t have a chance to go through this process again with the current update, but was alarmed to note that applications I had opted to block with Parental Control either could not open, or prompted the warning that they would soon be forced off. And just now I looked in the System Tray and I see that Parental Control is back. Interestingly, the force close warning has been modified to include a countdown timer. Has the feature been restored to the current version of the software, or am I looking at something that was not intended? This is of high importance to me, as my child’s activity on the Internet is easily monitored, whereas unfettered access to my applications and file system presents countless risks, and Microsoft’s built-in controls are woefully lacking. In fact, so far as I can tell, everyone’s are, except for Kaspersky’s. Are these controls to stay in the system after all? And if so, how can I prevent them from applying blocks and displaying warnings while they are switched off?