XP SP2 Firewall

[DM]

Hello everyone,

After upgrading to XP SP2, the inbuilt firewall has proved to be very annoying.

Since I already have a very good firewall (provided by PC-CILLIN), I do not wish to have the inbuilt one.

At start up, the Windows XP firewall takes a colossal amount of time and CPU process to load up. On my computer it usually takes 3 to 5 minutes of excruciating CPU process, it's simply ludicrous.

I would like to therefore close the "windows security alerts" icon on the task bar (red shield icon) and its main program permanently.

Does anyone know how to do that?

Many thanks in advance

[Ioman]

Go to "Control Panel" and then "Security Center" and you can turn off the FireWall, Virus Protection, and Automatic Updates from there. You can also turn off all of the alerts.

Hope that helps!

[DM]

Go to "Control Panel" and then "Security Center" and you can turn off the FireWall, Virus Protection, and Automatic Updates from there. You can also turn off all of the alerts.

Hope that helps!

But unfortunately the windows security alert program still loads up whenever I start the computer, hence remaining present for the whole time (despite switching off all available options).

I should make it clear that it's the loading of the windows security alert program that takes up a lot of CPU processing.

Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

[Ioman]

hmm well I think if you have all three turned off, it will not load. Maybe go into "Change the way Windows Security alerts me" and turn off all alerts?

[DM]

hmm well I think if you have all three turned off, it will not load. Maybe go into "Change the way Windows Security alerts me" and turn off all alerts?

I'm afraid not. I've already tried that and it still loads up.

[Ioman]

My inclination is to tell you something else is slowing down your system then, its not the Windows Firewall since you have it turned off.

[DM]

My inclination is to tell you something else is slowing down your system then, its not the Windows Firewall since you have it turned off.

I can understand where you're coming from but since day one of upgrading to XP2, it seems it's the windows security alerts program that's causing mayham. When the icon is loaded, the huge CPU process spent for it to load suddenly stops.

Anyway, there's only one definite way of finding out and that's by deactivating the whole program permanently. In other words not allowing it to load in the first place.

[Ioman]

Definately. So how do you turn it all off? Is it a Windows component you can uninstall?

[DM]

Definately. So how do you turn it all off? Is it a Windows component you can uninstall?

Well I was hoping anyone here could tell me how. So far I haven't found any answers anywhere.

[Ioman]

Ok figured out how:

Click Start, Run and type Services.msc
Locate the Security Center entry in the list
Double-click Security Center and set it's Startup type to Disabled

Hope that helps!

[DM]

Ok figured out how:

Click Start, Run and type Services.msc
Locate the Security Center entry in the list
Double-click Security Center and set it's Startup type to Disabled

Yep, it certainly proved effective.

Apparently it had to do with the Windows SP2 firewall after all because when I disabled the Windows Security Alerts program, the same occurred at start up. Despite disabling this program, it did not disable the firewall. So I then disabled the Windows XP firewall - only leaving the PC-Cillin firewall active - and it did wonders.

I'm truly indebted to your help!

Much obliged!

[Ioman]

Glad it helped! For how small of a task that should have been, it sure proved to be a doozy eh? I hope to see you around our forums some more hopefully!

:cheers