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!
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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
i was getting crazy for these damn popups… thanks man, easy as that and right in front of me all the time.. thanks again
oh, you so rock! thankyouthankyouthankyouXXX
live long and prosper!
Thanks Bro!
phew, finally
thanks
Thanks! You saved me from buying an automatic weapon and heading to Readmon.
I meant Redmond. :-p
thanks vey much ! this was 1thing yhat annoyed me for 2 years …!
THANX A MILL!!……..:{}
great tip, thank you
I don’t have “change the way…” or resources button. Help!!!
Funny how so many people thanks you like if that checkbox wouldn’t have been there since forever.
Lazy people… Google addicts…
And thanks, by the way…
Thanks alot, very useful! So easy, I should slow down and read more! haha
Annoying pop ups gone with this simple magic…Many thanks for this guide.
Thank god for this. What a POS, Windows.
Thanks for that. First day of freedom.
Cheers, this has been annoying me for ages. I thought I’d have to do a registry edit, but actually the fix was easy…
Your the Man..Thanks
The registry fix does not work, I have verified this. Even after changing it, a yellow shield sits there telling I have an update I need to install.
@Carlos: The shield that lists updates to install comes from Automatic Updates not the security center. You need to either click the icon and install the update or disable Automatic Updates (which I don’t recommend doing) to remove that icon.
That’s really a cool work.
thx so much. I can’t believe it was a) so easy b) so long that I waited and didn’t think about figuring it out!
What a pain in the but that little pop-up was. I can see where microsoft got their ideas for vista’s in-your-face pop-up schemes. This truly was irritating.
God bless!
Praise Jebus!
sir
In win xp if right click on the file to copy,paste,cut etc., it will take too long time to open pop up window . Kindly let me know to how fix this problem
awaiting your reply
thanking you
regards
nataraj
Thank you very much. I have been annoyed by this thing for a very long time. Every time I start up my computer, DING! Surely didn’t know you could even disable it but thank you very much for the heads up! Much appreciated.
good evening sir,
i have a question to know from you that when i am going to download a video file from any site it is not saved in my computer. i have tried several times but failed.how can i be successfull to do it? please let it know me as soon as possible.
Thanks, it was driving me nuts! not a big deal, just annoying
thank a lot yar
Thank you very much !!!
Nicely documented.
Just thought I’d pop in to give my thanks for posting this helpful tip. Thank you!
Thanks for your helpful hint
wow’ what a help ; i never realized to stop it so easily;
many many thanks buddy’
Thank You. It works for me
Thankyou Very Much
Thank you very much for this very small and very very helpful tip !