Disable "Your computer might be at risk" Popup in Windows XP SP2
Since upgrading to XP SP2 a long time ago, I constantly get nagged by a popup message that tells me my computer might be at risk because I don't have an antivirus software installed. Here's how to turn off that annoying message.
Note: You should probably have antivirus software installed.
You will want to open up your control panel, and then open the Security Center icon.
On the left hand side of the security center window, you will see a resources section. Click the bottom link, "Change the way Security Center alerts me"
You can choose which alert to disable here. Since I don't have antivirus software, I unchecked the bottom checkbox.
No more annoying popups!
The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 11/8/06 and tagged with: Windows, Customizing: Tips & Tweaks
Thanks for this small but very helpful tip.
Thanks a lot. Very useful tip indeed!
Thanks a lot. it is very usefull for me.
Much gratitude.
Yes, I thought it would require a registry tweak or something, but sometimes things can be quite straightforward. Thanks for showing us this!
I opened the security center many times and never realized about this. I hated this pop-up and also the windows updates good for noting. Thank you.
THANKS!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, I Really Needed this.
This does not work for me. Even after I do the above procedure the next day the stupid little red heart pops up telling me my computer is as risk. Spybot has found a registry entry for this probem and removed it and it still comes back. I open regedit found the entry and changed the setting and it still comes back. I have asked the IT folks as work and they tell me the procedure you have above.
I have a Thinkpap G41 and used Windows XP profesional (service pack 2) and use Symantec Corporate edition antivirus 8.
Spybots findings:
Microsoft.WindowsSecurityCenter.AntiVirusOverride: Settings (Registry change, nothing done)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center\AntiVirusOverride!=dword:0
Any ideas??? THanks Stephanie
Thanks a lot. it is very usefull for me
Stephanie - I had the same problem - I went months with this annoying announcement every time I started my computer. I don't use virus scanning at all (I won't digress into that here). I think the problem is a bug in the XP security panel that is not actually saving the change.
First there are to different areas to make updates: If you go to Security Center and click the Recommendations button, there is a check box on that page ("…I'll monitor myself…"). The second is the options under "change the way … alerts". I set both of these repeatedly with no luck.
Yesterday I tried one more time, and thinking through the potential 'save' issue, I made the same two changes, but I also changed something else, I turned on automatic updates (I normally keep it off) to notify me, but not download or install. Don't click the 'turn on' button, but use the link at the bottom of Security Center. That popup has an apply button which I used to 'save' the changes. I then went back in to Security Center and set automatic updates back to my normal setting.
It seemed to work … today is the first day since applying SP2 that I have not received a popup and if I go back into Security Center, the unchecked boxes are still unchecked (finally !!).
Hope this helps others!
Great tip !!….thanks so much
In process I found like this…. wscript.exe/E:vbs C:\Wndows\boot.ini what does it mean?
My OS is XP SP2 The same entry was found in registry
This was very help ful for me Thanks!
Microsoft and Symantec should be subjected to censure for setting it up this way in the first place. Thank you for telling us how to undo their conspiratorial and collusive efforts to sell us more crap we don't need.
wOw!!!!
thanks!!!
Thank! small, but very useful tip.
no more silly annoyances…
finally some1 tells me how to do this simple thing!!!
thanks
When I open Security Cewnter and look in the left sidebar, the item "Change the way Security Center notifies me" is greyed out and inaccessible. Any solution to this? Thanks!
thanks…but i still have a lot of problems with this icon.
thank you .. i was in a bad need of this
THANK YOU!!!!
Thank You very much i really needed this !!!
i got the same problem like Wickster "When I open Security Cewnter and look in the left sidebar, the item "Change the way Security Center notifies me" is greyed out and inaccessible" !!! any solutions for that ??
I have the same issue as staxx "When I open Security Cewnter and look in the left sidebar, the item "Change the way Security Center notifies me" is greyed out and inaccessible"…. any thoughts? This annoying pop up hits me every 2 minutes throughout the day.
Do you have administrator access on your computer? I don't believe you can change the option unless you are administrator.
If you want to both disable the notifications as well as disable the Security Center, merely create a text file. Copy and paste the following text (between the colons) into it:
Start:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center]
"FirstRunDisabled"=dword:00000001
"AntiVirusDisableNotify"=dword:00000001
"FirewallDisableNotify"=dword:00000001
"UpdatesDisableNotify"=dword:00000001
"AntiVirusOverride"=dword:00000000
"FirewallOverride"=dword:00000000
:End
Rename the file to whatever you like but make sure that you choose 'All files' from the save file type and save it as a .reg (registry) file.
The following assumes that you have administrative access to your machine's registry:
Double-click on the .reg file that you created from the text file.
When asked if you wish to add the information in 'the file you created.reg' to the registry, answer yes.
You will then get confirmation that the information has been successfully added to the registry.
Reboot for the settings to take effect.
Upon reboot go to the Control Panel and Double-click on the security center icon. It should be inactive and grayed-out.
To verify that the service itself is disabled, right click on 'My Computer' on either the start menu or the desktop and select the 'Manage' option.
Go to the Services and Applications \ Services
Find the Security Center Service on the right side of the screen and make sure that it says disabled.
If it does not, merely double-click the name Security Center and it's property window will pop up
Stop the service. Once it has stopped, change the 'Startup Type' option to disabled and click 'OK'
That's it…
This is one of those things that I absolutely hate about Windows. Give me an operating system that gets out of my way!!! What does Microsoft not understand about this?
Many thanks, that rotten pop-up has made me angry for years!!
Ronnie.
Thank you very much. It makes the computer illiterate people feel safer, i.e. my parents.
Thanks,
small but annoying
That shit was really annoying me.Thanks very much mate.
I hate sp2
very use full tips……….thx
Thank you so much. it is wonderful to find quick to follow, simple and useable advice. I really appreciate it, and so will lots of other people i tell about how to get the Windows popup to go away!
Ty for your tip