Details about Windows XP SP2 Security Center

One of the biggest features of Windows XP SP2 is Security, which is highlighted by the so-called "Windows Security Center", which is responsible for checking the Security status of the computer, includes three security elements: Firewall, virus protection software, and automatic update, which constitute the three most important parts of system security. If firewall and automatic update are not enabled in the system, or anti-virus software is not installed, the Windows security alarm icon appears in the tray area by default, prompt the current security status of the system. Double-click the system to go to the security center to learn about the security suggestions provided by the system.

General of the security center

As shown in 1, the security center is divided into three parts: resources, security basics, and Management Security Settings. Among them, "Resources" are mainly help and support information related to the security center, "Management Security Settings" allows you to quickly access and change Internet Options, automatic updates, and Windows Firewall settings. "Security Basics" are naturally the core of the security center.
 

 

Figure 1 Windows Security Center

1. Firewall

Firewalls help improve computer security and prevent unauthorized users from accessing computers over the network or the Internet. We can regard them as protective boundaries between computers (or computer networks) and the outside world, hackers often use scanning software to find unprotected computers connected to the Internet. These software only needs to send a short message to your computer. If a firewall is not installed, your computer will automatically answer the message, which means to tell the hackers that your computer is not protected.

If a firewall is installed, the computer will not answer the answer when receiving such a message, so that hackers will not even know that such a computer exists in the network. SP2 replaces the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) in Windows XP (SP1) with the built-in Windows Firewall, and Windows Firewall is automatically enabled by default (figure 2 ), in this way, computer viruses and worms can be prevented from intruding into the system, and unauthorized applications and services cannot connect to the network. Alerter and Messenger services with many security risks have been automatically disabled, we can even set a port to only be used by local subnet users, which can greatly improve the security performance.

 

Figure 2 Windows Firewall

The Security Center automatically checks whether Windows Firewall has started and whether there are third-party software firewalls, such as BlackICE, McAfee, Norton, Tiny Personal Firewall, and ZoneAlarm, due to the exclusive nature of SP2 in the firewall, if a third-party firewall is installed in the system, the security center will prompt "two or more firewalls may conflict with each other at the same time, if you do not want to see such a prompt, you can close one of them, from www.microsoft.com/athome/security/ protect/firewall. mspx can view detailed help information.

2. Automatic update

In fact, as early as the Windows XP era, automatic update is enabled as the default service of the system. Unfortunately, many users manually disable it to save system resources, the biggest consequence of this is the inability to obtain system updates (including key updates and security updates) in a timely manner. This is why many users are not able to withstand the shock wave and shock wave viruses.

SP2 further enhances the automatic update function. During the first startup after the completion of SP2 installation, the system requires you to configure automatic updates. If you use the "Automatic (recommended)" setting, as long as the computer is always online, automatic updates will automatically search for all important updates at a.m., including security updates, key updates, Service packs, and automatic installation. If you disable automatic updates, the security center constantly displays alerts.

However, in general, automatic updates only send the latest important updates, so we should still regularly visit the Windows Update Website to install updates.

3. virus protection

Virus is a destructive or fraudulent program. The most effective way to defend against viruses is to install anti-virus software and enable real-time scanning. The security center will automatically track the anti-virus software installed in the system. Of course, only the anti-virus software supported by SP2 can be detected and monitored, as shown in figure 3, from popular anti-virus Software such as Micro, VirusBuster, Kaspersky, McAfee Security, and Panda Software.

 

Figure 3 virus protection

The anti-virus software listed in the List is supported. After installation, a signature file is provided to the system. The security center uses this signature file to check whether the currently running anti-virus program is the latest version, if the security center finds that the anti-virus software is not the latest version, it will find a security alarm and display "set flag" as "expired". It also reminds users to update the virus database of the anti-virus software in a timely manner, of course, you can also cancel the alarm settings for related projects from the figure 4 window.

 

Figure 4 alarm settings

How to use Windows to find

Anti-virus software or firewall

From the analysis above, we can see that the security center considers the system to be safe only when all the three components in Figure 1 are in the "enabled" status, if Windows Firewall and automatic update are not enabled in the system, or anti-virus software is not installed (maybe Windows XP SP2 does not properly identify an anti-virus software ), then the security center will display the corresponding security alarm in the system tray area, and we will see a red highlighted icon below the clock.

Although this hidden icon does not affect the normal use of anti-virus software, some users may feel uncomfortable. Therefore, if you can confirm that the anti-virus software has been installed and is in the latest status, you can stop receiving security alerts by following the steps below:

Open the security center window from the control panel, and click "suggestion" in "virus protection, in the dialog box, select the check box "I have installed the anti-virus program and monitor its status", and then click "OK, in this way, the security center will set "virus protection" to "unknown", and of course it will not send security alarms to users.

However, if "virus protection" is set to "ON", the "recommended" button will not work. For firewalls that cannot be found in Windows, click the "Suggestions" button in "Security Center> firewall, in the dialog box, select the check box "I have installed the firewall program and monitored its status", and click "OK.

In addition, there is also a way to completely close the "Information harassment" of the security center, that is, find the security center service at the bottom of the "Control Panel> Management Tools> service" window, select "Manual" or "disabled" in "Start type". Click "OK" to enable the security center service again.
(T101)