Windows XP Security Center Part 1 of 5
What is Windows® XP Security Center? And why should I know about. Well, the internet has opened many wondrous & exciting electronic doors to explore. Medicine, Science, the Arts, History, fun places to go, etc. And this is only the beginning. We are able to visit (digitally) many parts of this world, make new friends of various cultures & languages and sometimes “go where no man has gone before”.
However, not all people (emails), places (web sites) & things (software downloads) on the internet may not be what they seem. Think of the “net” , as in the dialog of a famous western movie; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo). The good are fairly self evident-www.disney.com, www.google.com, www.microsoft.com, etc.. The bad are NOT so self evident-many free software download sites, web sites who place unwanted software on your computer without your knowledge or consent. And the ugly, well…
How does Windows® XP Security Center relate to the above you ask? It was not long after Microsoft released Windows® XP, that computers running this operating system, while connected to the internet, began have multiple security issues. Computers, in less nefarious situations, began slowing down or some software applications produced errors or did not function at all. However, more nasty things started to happen. Microsoft recognized this and released a Service Pack (1). This, however, left a lot to be desired from a security standpoint and did not protect users very well (the firewall was OFF by default). So, out came another, Service Pack 2. With this release, Microsoft “beefed up” Windows security (by the way, it is highly recommended that Windows® XP users should be updated to SP2). In SP2, there resides a security function called Security Center. It is designed to help the user secure Windows in three (3) areas. Security Center itself doesn’t do much, but it provides a single location where you can view the status of the Windows® Firewall and of Windows’ Automatic Updates service. The utility also tracks if you have an antivirus program installed, running, and updated. If any of these three key security tools has been disabled or is less than fully functional, Security Center changes their corresponding status lights from green to either red or amber. The program also displays a warning icon in the system tray. A red light means that you should probably take steps to beef up security in the indicated area. An amber light signifies a service that is only partly enabled.
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