Remove Windows Security Shield Alert In Notification Area

Hi ate2zee2,

 

You want to remove the Windows Security Shield Alert in the notification area.

 

Follow these steps.

 

1.Open the control panel, and choose "Security Center".

 

2.On the left-hand side, select "Change the way Security Center alerts me".

 

3.In Windows XP, clear the check boxes, and click "OK" Close the control panel and restart the computer.

 

Follow the steps and let us know the status for further help.

 

Thanks.

Clearing the check boxes would erase the red security shield, but I would no longer be alerted if the anti-virus or firewall were actually turned off. I do want to be alerted if there is a legitimate reason, Shortly after I posted my question yesterday, the red shield disappeared again & so far it hasn't returned. This pattern of the shield appearing & disappearing in a seemingly random way is the problem I'd like to fix. I'm assuming that the shield will re-appear as it has for the last couple of weeks.

I have waited this issue out for nearly a month. When it first appeared (the Red Shield my McAfee antivirus would attempt to update, even though it had been as I have those type of tasks set to do automatically. It became a big problem which led me to contact McAfee Tech Support.  The used GoToAssist and removed the entire McAfee program.  However once they tried to re-install McAfee it became aware to them that IE ver 8 was corrupted and needed to be uninstalled then reinstalled before they could reinstall McAfee.  Leaving me on my own to complete that task before calling them back.  I did a bit of research at the time and it seemed as if the entire mess was a virus or trojan that had infected my system. I seemed to have been successful following these instructions, however I would like to know if it is or was a virus and can I uninstall Internet Explorer with out deleting any files needed for other programs?

In my case, in order to get rid of the red shield security alert, I ended up following a work around remedy that I found on the community forum . It's not a fix, but it worked for me. Whenever the red shield alert returns, I repeat the work around. I read somewhere that the appearance of the red shield can be a glitch associated with Windows XP. The work around is to open Microsoft Security Essentials,, turn off the Real Time Protection & save the change. Then go back in & turn Real Time Protection back on & save the change.  The explanation is that the red shield appears because of a problem with Windows not connecting with Microsoft Security Essentials. The work around re-establishes contact which causes the red shield to disappear. Another method of removing the red shield  is to update Microsoft Security Essentials, even if it doesn't need updating.  Initially I thought the appearance of the red shield might be related to a virus, but it didn't seem to be. Later the hard drive on my laptop died and I now have a different laptop that also has Windows XP on it. I have the same thing happening on this laptop with the red shield appearing from time to time. I use the work around or I update Microsoft Security Essentials & the red shield is gone.