windows firewall warning message.

because many games say you should i have my firewall turned off whenever i play games.. its just windows standard firewall anyways..

Now i shut off the little alert boxes that say alert me when windows starts... and it STILL has the lil red shield pop up and say it.. so i have to click and reunclick the damn options everytime i start windows.

Who knows how to get rid of this because it keeps changing my settings from do not warn me.. to warn me and its getting annoying..

i run spy bot search and destroy every day and i NEVER look at any bad sites or anything.

and this is a microsoft related issue anyways. so if anyone has an idea of how i can get this damn thing to quit buggin me that would rock

im running windows xp with service pack 2 and fully updated

It's due to Spybot. When you fix the selected problems there's one that as to do with the Windoes Security Centre.

I tend just to turn of Windows security centre and use third party apps. If you want to turn your's of completely then this is how.

START > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Computer Management.

Once the console is open click on the little plus sign next to Services and Applications, then click on Services and you should see a list of various Services in the right hand pane. Scroll down until you see Security Centre and right click on it. Click Properties and under Start up Type select Disabled. Apply it and then exit the program. The next time you start windows it will be disabled.

dude...never ever turn off your firewall while youre connected to the net....just start the firewal and set the exceptions

QFT. Put Guild Wars in the exceptions list of windows firewall, and it should work perfectly fine. NEVER disable your firewall if there's nothing else between your computer and the internets. That's bad.

Image below to show you what it's supposed to look like wit gw on the exceptions list:

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/2356/image1be2.jpg

Why not if he is behind a router = full control of everything + hardware firewall? This Windows Firewall is so annoying and I really don't think that it can actually protect anything. Just ignore the message and the red shield...

Never alter your computer's services either.

S'why I said

If he knows he has a hardware firewall, then sure, shut it off. But if he's not sure, leave it on. Better than getting a worm or something on his computer within a couple of minutes without even using his internet connection.

just for your information spybot has been losing serious ground (adaware as well)

the latest testing shows them both at about worthless at only 2.5 out of 5 for spybot. (PC MAG SEPT 19 ISSUE)

the ones that have made big progress and are at the top are

SPYWARE DOCTOR
SPYSWEEPER

in that order with 4.5/5

SD also gets rootkits/keyloggers

in this case paying for it is worth it

Why not? Some of the crap that XP forces you to run at start-up is just plain annoying and does nothing more than suck up resources. I have as little as possible running, mostly disabled via the Services window and I have no problems whatever. In fact my PC runs quicker and is more stable because of all the tweaking.

Then again, I have been using and working with computers since the mid 70's and know my way around them!

i use spyware doctor.

I actually liked it so much that I bought it for my dad's computer for his birthday, too (theres a deal for multiple computers)

I also have another program for firewalling, but SD is really the best thing to ever happen to my computer... Its updated at LEAST once a week.

It takes up a lot of system RAM, so I usually turn it off while playing games, but I keep it up when on the net- it even blocks some of these guild wars sites i visit from time to time (guild-hall has some crappy crappy ads that need attention) which goes to show, that even being 'careful' is not going to help you all the time.

Spyware Doctor does the job. First time it found like 100+ problems, and since then its very very rare that I have anything in my computer that i dont know about.

there are usually 4-5 per week.

i update first thing every morning.

it may be a change from XX-XXXXX001
TO XX-XXXXX002 but some new was added to the database.

also i run it just before i log into my GW account each and every time.

it takes a few minutes in the background elsewhere before i log in

Another handy little tool for getting rid of some of the more persistant spyware, mostly those fake 'anti-spyware' pop-ups that seem to linger and get missed by the majority of removers is this.

VundoFix

It works a treat and is only a 80k stand-alone application, no installation required. Just download and run.