Just how secure is Windows Security Center anyway???

[GomJabbar]

Last night I uninstalled my Avira AntiVir Personal - FREE Antivirus software to make ready for an installation of Avira AntiVir Premium antivirus software.

I rebooted and expected to see "Windows Security Center" of Windows XP warn me that there was a problem with my antivirus protection. I received no alert at all! I used regedt32 and deleted a handful of leftover keys from my AntiVir installation, but that made no difference.

Next I ran Belarc Advisor to see what it would report. Belarc said that my Antivirus was running and up-to-date! In fact, Belarc said that Norton 2004 antivirus was running!

It is true I still have the utilities of Norton SystemWorks installed (for the registry cleaner "WinDoctor" as well as other utilities), but I removed Norton Antivirus over 2 years ago. I went to Administrative Tools > Services and found 4 Symantec services listed. I disabled and stopped the 3 Symantec services that were running, but still no alert from Windows Security Center.

A little Googling brought me to the following webpage which gave the solution to this problem.

How to fix problem when Windows Security Center reports multiple antivirus programs installed

When I was writing my reviews on how to uninstall McAfee and Norton antivirus software, I noticed a problem with my laptop. After I had completely uninstalled both programs Windows Security Center and Belarc Advisor reported that I still Norton, McAfee, and my original antivirus AVG installed on the computer.

I proceeded to double-check the programs running in the background, programs running as a windows service, etc. and could not find any trace of these antivirus programs on the computer, but Windows Security Center reported they were still all installed.

It seems this issue appears if the WFI repository folder is not thoroughly deleted during the uninstall process of these programs. Follow the instructions below to delete this folder's contents and restore order to your system again.

http://www.pchell.com/support/multiple_ ... nter.shtml

[goofyGAguy]

I have it set not to alert me to anything. It's a bother.

[sarbin]

^^^
exactly what i do.
i take it a step further and also disable the wfw/ics and seccenter services.

[makai]

It's common that Norton will still keep services running even after an uninstall. What a pain! Uninstalling all Symantec/Norton apps is the very first thing I do after I redo a Thinkpad. I then search the entire C drive and registry for remnants of Symantec/Norton and delete them. Then I go to Services to make sure nothing to do with Symantec/Norton is running and if so, kill them. It's amazing that this app makes you go through so much pain to just not use it!

Also, I kill both Windows Firewall and Security Center in services as I don't use them. I use Zonealarm as my firewall, AVG as my antivirus, and depend on AVG to alert me about any updates required.

Currently, all my machines run the following for securtiy/anti-spyware protection, and basic maintenance...

Zonealarm (v4.5... old but effective!)
AVG 7.5 (until updates are no longer available)
AVG Antispyware (not that great... actually pretty bad!. Use it just to supplement AVG, but will probably uninstall soon)
Hijackthis (must be careful with this)
SpywareBlaster (restricts unwanted sites)
Spybot (rarely run due to high CPU usage)
Malwarebytes (very, very good app... fast and clean... Highly recommended)
CCleaner (must be careful with this)
MRU blaster (to get rid of trash)
ATF cleaner (to get rid of trash)
ERUNT (for registry back up in conjunction with System Restore)

[jdhurst]

With respect to Security Center - I turn it off as well.

With respect to Norton - it is easy to uninstall totally, although you have to go to the Symantec site and get the uninstall tool for your version. But you do not have to edit the registry to remove it all.

With respect to Symantec - the corporate tools uninstall properly with no added tools.

... JDH

[denisky]

I always disable Windows Firewall & Security Center services after a fresh Windows install. They are annoying and often show a notification pop-up in taskbar.