Home    PC Repair    Custom Builds    Operating Systems    Help & Advice   Tutorials    Links    Contact

Help & Advice

The security centre (little red shield by the clock) is a real pain and a total waste of space for all but total neophites, nagging about firewalls, antivirus, updates and generally whining on. In XP its fairly easy to get rid of but in Vista it really takes some shifting. It is not bad in itself I just find it very annoying so if you want rid of it like I do, the following in a normal admin account will nuke it. These instructions are from this site

Remove Security Centre (XP)

Start -> Run then type "services.msc" (without the quotes) in the box and hit return.
Scroll down to find "Security Centre" and double click on the entry.
Press the "Stop" button then select "Disabled" in the Start up type drop down.
reboot - gone!

Remove Security Centre (Vista)

Go to Start --> Run and type "cmd" without the quotes.
Type "cd\" then <enter> followed by "cd windows\system32" <enter>.
Now run the following commands: ie copy them one at a time into the command box and press <enter>.

takeown /f wscapi.dll
takeown /f wscsvc.dll
takeown /f wscui.cpl

Now you have ownership of the files. Go into the system32 directory in explorer and right click each file, go to the security tab and add an entry for everyone and give them full access permissions.
Disable the Security Center Service via services.msc if you have not already done so, (see XP above)
In the system32 folder rename the three mentioned dll's (change their file extension to .bak).
To get rid of the Security Center service from services.msc drop to a command prompt and type the following:
* "REG DELETE HKLM\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\WSCSVC /F", hit enter and reboot.
No more nagging or icon in your system tray

Help & Advice >>>