Security Center Disabled

[blsabo]

I'm running XP Pro and Norton Anti-Virus 2008. I have been getting a pop up messege from Norton that I turned off Norton. However, this is not true all items are turned on. While working with symantec on this issue it came down to an XP issue. My security center is disabled and will not remain enabled. I have gone to "run" then "services.msc" and set to "automatic" then "start" but the next time I log in - it's disabled again. In other forums I found some registry changes and tried them to no avail.

So, how can I get security center to start automatically when someone logs into the computer?

 

[Glenn9999]

Norton, as far as I'm aware, is a full security package more than it is a simple anti-virus. Generally that means that it has its own firewall product that loads. To load a third-party firewall product, it means disabling the firewall that comes with Windows XP. But when that is done, the security center will squawk incessantly that the firewall is disabled. Therefore, when Norton loads, it will disable the security center as well to provide a non-annoying user experience.

So my guess is you won't be able to enable the security center as long as you're running Norton.

 

[acewarlock]

The samething happens with my XP and I'm using McAfee. I us Zonealarm for my firewall. It seems to be connected with the way the system boots up, if McAfee loads before Zonealarm everything is fine.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[wolluf]

Norton comes in various levels - you can have just the AV or full internet security or anything in between. It does do a lot of things to various settings, but it doesn't usually turn off the security centre. If you are using Norton's firewall, it sets security centre to 'I have own solution that I'll monitor myself' setting. Most commonly in my experience, malware or virus is most likely cause of security centre being disabled. So in your situation I'd run some scans (eg, spybot, adaware, AVG anti-spyware, Windows Defender, Hijackthis) to see if anything nasty is/has infected your machine.

 

[linney]

Check this Key in the Registry, compare what is there with other machines that do not have a problem with Security Center. Also check the value @ DependOnService, mine lists RpcSs winmgmt, what does yours list?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wscsvc

Make sure there is no problems with the Dependant Services.

 

[blsabo]

Hmm, well I only have Norton Anti-Virus not the complete package. This had not been a problem previously with this configuration of Norton and XP. I did change the HDD to an upgraded machine - did a repair install of XP and SP2. Maybe I just need to reinstall Norton, but that does not solve the security center issue.

linney - my key also says RpcSs winmgmt under that key.

Without going in and manually turning on Security Center, if you bring up the security center from the control panel all it shows is 3 icons under "Manage Security Center For:" and then the 3 icons, one each for "Internet Options", "Windows Firewall", and "Automatic Updates".

Once it is manually turned on via "services.msc" It showes the boxes with the status of all three of those services. I.e. that the automatic updates is turned off, firewall is on, and that a third party anti-virus is running.

 

[linney]

By way of a temporary workaround can you use the "SC Start wscsvc" command as a Startup Batch file or similar?

Then there is always SFC /Scannow in the Start Run Box (and have your XP CD handy) to check for System file corruption.

Or the repairing of Windows by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp