Security Center

Click on the Start menu, choose 'Control Panel', then 'Security Center'.This new feature in XP SP2 lets you see what Windows thinks is going on, security-wise.

If that works, and everything is green and says 'ON', congratulations, you're at least moderately protected. Otherwise, keep reading.

I have no security center!

If you have no 'Security Center' in your Control Panel, you're running pre-SP2 Windows XP, and you need to immediately find 'Windows Update' on your Start menu and run it. Run it repeatedly, letting it install stuff and reboot your computer, until it stops suggesting things. This could take a fairly long time, so if you have a slow internet connection, you might want do it overnight. Or you can go somewhere with a fast connection, such as a library, and download SP2 download, onto a CD-R or a 512 meg or larger flash drive. Then come back to these instructions.

Firewall says says OFF:

There are two reasons for this, one okay and one bad. The okay one is that you are running a third party firewall that disabled the build-in Windows Firewall, but didn't correctly report itself to Windows. If you are, you might want to check for updates to that firewall, but it won't hurt anything. You can click on 'Recommendations' and tell it you have a third party one if you want.

The bad reason is that you might be running with no firewall at all. If you haven't installed any, and don't see anything that could be one in your system tray , turn back on the Firewall. If you turned it off on purpose because it was interfering with some application (Probably a P2P app or a game), you need to instead open the specific ports the program uses, and only those ports. Searching for 'ports firewall Your App' should give you some useful information.

However, we recommend purchasing a third-party firewall, which will have many more options and greater security.

Automatic Updates says OFF or CHECK SETTINGS:

Somone has disabled automatic updating, or set it where you can do it manually. Obviously, we don't recommend operating with automatic updates totally off, but we don't even recommend you setting them to manual. All too often, computers get left on for hours at a time, and the fact Windows knows there's a critical security update to install doesn't help anything if there's a prompt sitting on the screen waiting for you to click 'Okay'. Meanwhile, people could be breaking into your computer left and right, all for the lack of a single click. There's absolutely reason you should be to setting that to anything else. Just trust us.

Virus Protection says OFF:

It's possible you have turned your antivirus off. If so, obviously, turn it on. it's also possible that you have antivirus that doesn't report itself, but that's increasingly unlikely...antivirus updates regularly, and every manufacturer I've ever seen has put in the tiny bit of code that tells Windows it's an antivirus program.

But the most likely option is that either you have no antivirus, or you have expired antivirus. If so, you're obviously going to need to purchase some.