Norton Internet Security 2008 is installed on my Windows XP Home Edition SP3 computer. Now every time I start the computer Norton automatically disables the Windows Security Centre and Windows Firewall. I would like to maximise my protection and would like to leave these two utilities enabled. Can you explain how this can be achieved?

If you are concerned that the Windows Security Centre has been disabled, then you need not be overly worried. When Norton Internet Security installs on the computer, it disables the Windows firewall and also the Windows Security Centre by default. This is because Norton Internet Security has its own security centre (Norton Security Centre) and firewall. If the Windows Firewall remains enabled on the computer this can cause conflicts with the Norton firewall, therefore the Windows Firewall is disabled. Additionally, because Norton has many more advanced features than the relatively basic Windows security features, it makes sense that Norton uses its own security centre to represent the state-of-play regarding security on your computer.

As a starting point, you should not be manually enabling the Windows Firewall on your computer as this will potentially result in a world of hurt should conflicts arise later between the Norton firewall and the Windows XP firewall. You should only run one or the other, and I would recommend that you run the Norton firewall since this is much more feature-packed than the more basic Windows XP firewall (not to mention that you paid extra for the Norton firewall, whereas the Windows XP firewall comes included with Windows XP).

However, the decision as to whether you should run the Norton Security Centre is something for your own consideration because my research on the internet has shown that you can disable the Norton Security Centre during the installation process of Norton Internet Security if you really prefer to use the Windows Security Centre. However, before making any decision you should evaluate the functionality which each utility provides. The Windows Security Centre offers monitoring of basic computer security and provides warnings when the baseline security conditions have not been satisfied. In contrast, the Norton Security Centre provides more specific and detailed information about the state of the security software on your particular computer, given the security software is also Norton-branded software. Windows Security Centre cannot provide the same level of detail on the state of the Norton security software simply because the Windows Security Centre has been designed to report on the status of all possible and available security packages, so the information it provides is relatively generic. Norton Security Centre has been written specifically for the Norton product-line and thus can provide more detailed information. As you can see, the Windows Security Centre and Norton Security Centre are pretty much presenting the same information, just with varying degrees of detail.

Should you decide that you wish to use the Windows Security Centre instead of the Norton Security Centre there is a way to switch products. However, this will require you to reinstall Norton Internet Security on the computer. To do this, uninstall Norton Internet Security. I suggest that you then run the Norton Removal Tool so that any other elements of the software, which did not previously get uninstalled, can be removed. This can be downloaded from the Norton website, provided by the following shortened URL: tinyurl.com/6oq8f . Once Norton Internet Security has been removed from the computer, reinstall the product. During the installation process you will be asked whether you with to complete a normal or custom installation. Click the custom installation option. Within the custom installation options there should be an option as to whether you wish to install and enable the Norton Security Centre. Disable (untick) this option and then proceed with the installation. The Norton Security Centre should no longer be installed on the computer.