Windows Security Alert

Hi all. All of a sudden I now get that little red shield thing about Win. Sec. Alerts down in the toolbar area saying that my antivirus and firewall are not running, tho the icons for them say they are. I have made no changes lately, and this just came up out of the blue. I have the Sunbelt Personal Firewall, and Avast Av running. Any ideas why that Sec. Alert would be on now?? Oh and this is on XP with SP2, all up to date . Thanks for your time. Rick

Hello Rick-G… Your problem is a fairly common one when you use some of the free security software…and will likely become more common after a recent automatic update to Security Center. If you wish to monitor the Anti Virus and Firewall programs yourself, you can change the way Windows alerts you to these. Doing this will not put your machine at risk so long as you keep your security software updated. Open Control Panel and double click on the Security Center icon. In Security Center, on the left side of the window, click the link to "Change the way Security Center alerts me". In the dialog that opens, remove the ticks from Anti Virus and Firewall…click "Ok". You will no longer see the warnings after doing this. Cheers! wannabe1