Microsoft Windows security centre antivirus override. Help please.

[craigjo]

Hi all, I ran a spybot search and destroy scan today and it came up with this:

Microsoft Windows security centre antivirus override.

This is the second time this entry has appeared in about a week, the first time I removed it.

Can anyone please tell me what this is and how best to deal with it as the PC has shut down, I had a B.S.O.D and had to re-start the PC.

Thank you for any help.

Craig.

[drragostea]

This entry is detected when the Microsoft Security Center is instructed not to monitor the current status of the anti-virus on your computer.

Removing it with Spybot, will set it's registry value back to default so the Security Center will monitor the status again.

What version is Spybot-SD (Help>About)? Do you use a anti-virus program?
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[craigjo]

Hi drragostea, I'm running verison 1.5.2.20 of Spybot & AVG 8.0 anti-virus.

Craig.

[Terminator]

You are using an out-of-date version of Spybot, please upgrade to 1.6.0.30.

[md usa spybot fan]

craigjo:

That detection indicates that "Virus Protection" in Windows Security Center has been overridden. If you go into Start > Control Panel > Security Center > look at the right hand side of the window and check the settings under "Virus Protection", I believe that you will find that it is not "On".

What antivirus are you running?

Some products like McAfee Security Center and Norton Internet Security disable parts of Windows Security Center.

Also see:

• Why does Spybot-S&D flag changes in the Windows Security Center?
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/faq/46.html

[drragostea]

Were you using any other anti-virus programs prior to AVG 8.0? An alternative to this would be instructing Spybot-SD after a scan to "Exclude this is future scans".

If you take a look in the Windows Security Center, the Virus Protection tab would be yellow instead of Green. I recall that AVG will report to you after the installation if it was unable to 'integrate' to the Security Center.

Also, upgrade to Spybot-SD 1.6.0.30 when you have the time.

[craigjo]

Hello everyone.

I have upgraded to the latest Spybot, and run a scan, but the original problem still comes up.

If this is not an issue, I'll just leave it there.

It's was a friends PC before I had it, so am not sure what anti-virus it had.

Craig.

[drragostea]

The potential issue is that there could be a possible malware infection or such that may be disabling the monitoring. If the user instructed Microsoft Security Center not to monitor the status, then you can safely dismiss it.

Why don't you ask your friend?

[md usa spybot fan]

craigjo (Craig):

... If this is not an issue, I'll just leave it there. ...

It may not be a critical issue, but I believe that because the detection returns after fixing, it is something that may be worth looking into.

If you went into Start > Control Panel > Security Center > and then looked at the right hand side of the window, checked the settings under "Virus Protection" and found Windows Security Center is not monitoring your anti-virus, that is not necessarily a "good" thing.

If you or some friendly software is not intentionally stopping Windows Security Center from monitoring your "Virus Protection" than something else is.

The value of the Windows Security Center monitoring your "Virus Protection" is that if something shuts down the active agent of your anti-virus and Windows Security Center is monitoring your "Virus Protection", you will be notified.

For example: In my system Windows Security Center is monitoring my anti-virus, which in my case is Avira Antivir. If I inadvertently shut down the active component of my anti-virus (Antivir Guard - avguard.exe) or something in my system shuts it down, Windows Security Center notifies me (see Note #1). Although this is not an absolute protection, it adds a second level of notification that something may be amiss with the active agent component of my anti-virus protection.

In summary, I can't tell if the detection that you are getting is an issue or not. But I can say that without Windows Security Center monitoring your "Virus Protection" you may not be taking full advantage of the protection offered by the Windows Security Center.
__________

Note #1: To test the notification, I just shut down my Antivir Guard (avguard.exe) to see how long it took for Windows Security Center to notify me. With the mouse in my right hand to stop Antivir Guard and a stopwatch in my left to time the Windows Security Center notification, I missed timing the event twice because from the time I clicked to disable Antivir Guard and the appearance of the warning bubble from Windows Security Center was too quick to time accurately. On the third try there was an intervening bubble notification from the new beta version of TeaTimer concerning a process scan and I timed the event I was looking for at 1.3 seconds.

[patartsy]

I have a question. Can you recommend a free antivirus software that is considered a thorough one? Thanks.