MS Windows Security Cneter Disabled

Question

I am running XP Professional Service Pack 2, with Norton Antivirus, and Windows Defender.  (current version).  I find that Windows Security Center is disabled.  Following the MS procedure KB919291 for turning on automatic starting of the Security Center works fine, but after the required system restart the Security Center shows up disabled again.  SPYBOT detected a registry entry which appears to be the disable command, however no virus or worm shows up on scans by Spyhunter, Norton AV, McAfee, Housecall, or Windows Defender.  Bringing XP up in Safe Mode does not cure the problem.   Any suggestions?   Alec.

d-fish · Answer

' Norton AV, McAfee'   if you are have 2 AV's resident on the system, this would be a great place to start.   -d

Alec-Cymru · Answer

No, I normally run Norton, but in the interest of trying everything I turned it off and ran the free DELL Mcafee.

Goose3mc · Answer

nonetheless get mcafee out of there anyway. its garbage. you say the entire security centre is disabled? are you sure you dont mean automatic updates, or the windows firewall?

Alec-Cymru · Answer

The specific message from Control Panel>Secuirty Center is : 'The Security Center is currently unavailable...'. There is a procedure to re-enable the Security Center in MS Update KB919291.  This apparently works (shows Sec Center as being started automatically) but then on the required system restart it shows up disabled again.

HiGhLaNdEr48 · Answer

Alec-Cymru When you installed Norton you may have checked (or unchecked ,dont remember) the box to let Norton take over the handeling of the security center.If so this would disable the windows security center.

Alec-Cymru · Answer

I'm fairly sure that can't be the case, since a while back (and after the Norton install)  I used to get messages during startup from the Security Center that Norton AV wasn't turned on - of course these messages then went away as soon as Norton AV was started.  By the way, I am runnning Windows Defender - anyone know if that could be a factor?

Bugbatter · Answer

I'm not sure what disabled your Security Center to begin with, but realtime scanners, such as Defender, that immunize by preventing bad changes to the registry, may also prevent good changes.

Try disabling Defender temporarily:
* Open Microsoft Windows Defender. Click Start, Programs, Windows Defender
* Click on Tools, General Settings
* Under Real-time protection options, unselect the Turn on real-time protection check box
* Click Save

While Defender is disabled, run through the Resolution again: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919291
as well as any other changes you want to make to your system.

Reboot.

See if that helps.
Don't forget to enable Defender again for your realtime scanning.

** Whenever there is some type of change to the Security Center Spybot will report that. Therefore, your new change will show up in the next scan by Spybot.

Alec-Cymru · Answer

Bugbatter - thanks on Defender suggestion.  I tried it with no effect - am proceeding to install and run HijackThis.

JRosenfeld · Answer

NAV 2007 disables security center by default. You can stop it from doing so as follows: open NAV, Norton protection center tab, near top right click  on options. Check show messages from Windows security center, click OK.   You may need to start the security center service manually: click start, run, type services.msc, click OK or press enter. In the services window tha opens, scroll down to Security center. Check that it is set to automatic in the startup type column (you may need to stretch the window to the right). If not, double click on Security center service, which will open its properties. On the general tab, in the startup type  drop down box, select automatic. Click Apply, OK. then start the service by clicking the restart the service link on the left. Or restart your PC if you prefer.

Alec-Cymru · Answer

JRosenfeld:  thanks a huge bunch - that worked!  The message in NAV didn't really warn me that it would turn off the entire Security Center,   I still have another problem with a Trojan Horse (unrelated?) which I am working thru the Hijack forum.  Thanks again.

Bugbatter · Answer

Alec-Cymru, if you mentioned it, I did not notice what version Norton you are running. Glad that you fixed your problem.
Did you try scanning with SpyHunter in Safemode?

Message Edited by Bugbatter on 06-08-2007 06:04 PM

Alec-Cymru · Answer

Bugbatter:  yes - this had no effect.  I have scheduled a remote session with Spyhunter support for Monday.

Windows General

MS Windows Security Cneter Disabled

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