When running a Spybot Search & Destroy scan a message appears saying the Security Center is disabled. Although I click ‘Fix the Problem’ to resolve the issue, the same message appears during the next scan. On entering the Security Center a message says the service has not started or was stopped, and the option to change the way Security Centre alerts is greyed-out. How can I make sure Security Centre is enabled?

First, if you have third-party security software installed on your computer (such as Norton Internet Security or McAfee Internet Security) such programs may have their own Security Center. For example, Norton Internet Security has the Norton Security Center. To prevent conflicts, when such software installs its own Security Center, these generally disable the Windows Security Center. In this case, Spybot may not realise that a third-party Security Center has taken-over the function and disabled the default Windows Security Center, thus causing Spybot to issue an alert that this feature is disabled. Rest assured, these third-party Security Center facilities installed by trusted security software (such as Norton or McAfee) should provide you with the same, if not enhanced, security monitoring compared with the Windows Security Center. So, should one of these third-party Security Centers be running, this is likely the cause of the issue and also explains why the Windows Security Center is not running. In this case, you should be able to safely ignore the warning produced by Spybot as the third-party Security Center is protecting the computer.

However, in the event you are not running third-party security software which installs its own Security Center facility, it seems the Windows Security Center has been disabled without good reason. This could potentially compromise the security on your computer, as the Security Centre is not monitoring the status of security software on the computer, which may have other implications such as the Windows Firewall not running. So, we need to remedy this situation to help ensure the security of the computer. The first procedure we can try is starting the Windows Security Center service. Since Windows says the Security Center service is disabled, hopefully we can start the service and things will work. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Control Panel’. In the Control Panel window, open the ‘Administrative Tools’ control panel (you may need to first change to ‘Classic’ view if the Control Panel is currently disabling in Category view). In the Administrative Tools control panel, open ‘Services’. Find the entry for the ‘Security Center’ service, then right-click on the entry and select ‘Properties’. Make sure you are on the ‘General’ tab and you will most likely see the service is currently stopped. Make sure the ‘Startup Type’ is set to ‘Automatic’ and then click the ‘Start’ button to start the service. All being well, the service should start and you will be able to use the Security Center. Furthermore, since the Startup Type has been set to Automatic, the Security Center service should automatically load on startup, so it will also be available should you shutdown or restart the computer.

However, things are often not as simple as we would like, so you might find the Security Center service will not start. The most common error message you may encounter is ‘Could not start the Security Center service on Local Computer’. If you encounter this message with Error 1068 (the dependency service or group failed to start) this means the Security Center service relies on other services for its operation (dependencies) and these other services are not running. So, we need to make sure the dependant services are also running. To check which services are dependencies for the Security Center, right-click on the ‘Security Center’ service and select ‘Properties’. In the window that appears, click the ‘Dependencies’ tab. Under the heading ‘This service depends on the following system components’ you will see a listing of the dependent services. Write these down, and then go back into the Services window and ensure all these dependent services are started and are set to automatically start. Once this has been done you should be able to start the Security Center service.

Should this not resolve the issue, or you have encountered a different error, such as Error 1083 (the executable program that this service is configured to run in does not implement the service), 123 (the filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect), 2 (the system cannot find the file specified), or 3 (the system cannot find the specified path), it seems there could be a problem with the service itself and/or its configuration. In this case, there are a few handy utilities we can try to fix this problem. These should automatically fix the corrupt or mis-configured settings for the service, allowing it to be started. First, visit the following website: windowsxp.mvps.org/wscsvcfix.htm . On this page you will find a utility called ‘Wscfix’. Make sure you are running Windows XP with administrator privileges, then download the utility to your computer and extract the ZIP file. Once this has been done, run the ‘wscsvcfix.exe’ program. In the window that appears, click the ‘Inspect and Fix’ button. Once the program has finished, restart the computer. Hopefully upon restarting, the Windows Security Center service should be repaired. Check whether you can open the Security Center. If not, the Security Center service may still be disabled. In this case, go into the Services control panel and start the service. All being well, the service should start and the Security Center will work.

In the event the Security Center still does not work, and an error still appears when attempting to start the service, visit the following website: www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm . Scroll to line 338 and in the right-hand column you should see a link titled ‘Restore the Security Center Service’. Right-click on the link and select ‘Save Target [or Link] As…’. Select your Desktop as the save location, and this should save a .REG file to the desktop. This file contains instructions which will modify the Windows Registry and attempt to fix any invalid entries which could be causing the Security Center service not to load. Double-click the .REG file, and confirm that you wish to import the data into the registry. Once this has completed, restart the computer and check whether the Security Center service will start. If this does not work, then please contact me again for further advice.