Q: What is the Security Center
Control Panel applet in Windows
Vista and Windows XP SP2 used
for? Is there a way to modify how
Security Center notifies users of
security-related problems?
A: Security Center is a Control Panel applet
that Microsoft introduced in XP SP2 that
provides a central configuration and management
interface for client-side security
services. Security Center continuously
monitors the status of client-side security
services. In XP SP2, Security Center monitors
Windows Firewall, virus protection, and
Automatic Updates settings. Vista’s Security
Center also monitors Windows Defender,
Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) security, and
User Account Control (UAC)
settings.
Behind Security Center is
an engine that continuously
monitors the configuration
status of these security services
and informs users of their
status. Each service’s status is
checked against the preferred
configuration settings that are
specified in the Security Center
configuration dialog box, which
Figure 1 shows. For example,
the Security Center verifies that
Windows Firewall, Automatic Updates, and real-time virus scanning are
enabled and that the virus protection signature
files are up-to-date. If Security Center
finds that a service isn’t operating as specified
in the Security Center configuration
dialog box, it alerts the user by displaying a
red icon in the user’s taskbar or displays an
alert message on the user’s desktop.
Users can modify the way Security Center
notifies them of problems by clicking
the Change the way Security Center alerts
me link that’s located in the left pane of
the Security Center dialog box. From the
resulting Windows Security Center dialog
box, users can disable the Security Center
notifications, enable only user taskbar
notifications, or enable only notification
messages on the user’s desktop.
Security Center is enabled by default
on Vista and XP SP2 systems that aren’t
joined to a Windows domain. For domainjoined
machines, administrators can
enable and disable Security Center via the
Turn on Security Center (Domain PCs only)
Group Policy Object (GPO) setting that’s
located in the Computer Configuration Administrative Templates\Windows Components Security Center GPO container.
—Jan DeClercq
End of Article
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