Windows Security Centre

[johntheplamf]

How does windows Anti Virus and Firewall compare to the likes of Mcafee and the rest? I have the windows one turned off at the moment as i've always used the mcafee, but just wondered if it was any better.

[vehelpfulguy]

You say Windows Anti Virus and Firewall.

There is NO Anti Virus included in Windows XP.

If you want anti virus you need a separate product such as AVG (which is free and excelent), or McAfee, Norton etc.

There IS a firewall in Windows XP, but it is not very good. It only checks incoming threats not outgoing ones.

You can get Zone Alarm firewall, which is also free and excellent.

Those two, plus Adaware and WinPatrol (both free), and you are pretty well covered.

[johntheplamf]

I just looked, on the windows security centre, where you also choose to have automatic updates on or off, there is definitely a firewall and virus protections.

[vehelpfulguy]

The security centre shows ON if you have ANY Anti-Vrus or Firewall product installed.

In your case this is probably mcAfee for both.

In fact if you click the two little arrows to the right of the green ON button it tells you which AV and Firewall it is saying is ON.

If you deleted mcAfee (and hence the anti virus) then the security centre would then show OFF for anti virus as none would be installed.

If you deleted mcAfee (and hence the firewall) it would probably turn on the Windows firewall, so it would still show ON for firewall, but it would now be the Windows firewall.

So the security centre only shows ON if you have a separate AV program installed, as I said, there is none built-in to Windows.

[johntheplamf]

Ooooooooh right, that's very clever :O)

Thanks very much for your help mate.