Windows Security Center

[Stran05]

Hi, I am everyday harrassed by the Windows Security Center pop-ups saying that the Automatic Updates are turned off.

Reason for why Automatic Updates are turned off:

My Windows XP Service-Pack 2 is fully patched, but Windows still recommends me to upgrade to SP-3 which is the only downloadable content now in the automatic updater. It is a large 315MB and I want to stick to SP-2.

I have got some tips on how to disable the Security center pop-ups by tweaking the registry, but my question is: Will it harm the performance of Avast! 5 Free Antivirus in any way? Is it recommended?

[Gopher John]

On July 13th, 2010, all versions of Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 will reach the end of support.  See http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/help/what-does-end-of-support-mean.

Updating to SP3 will extend the life of Windows XP to April 8, 2014.  Since Microsoft is still publishing security updates(and likely will have to for the life of the product), there is no real need to stay with SP2.  SP3 will run on the same hardware as SP2.

[Lisandro]

Anyway, changes in WSC do not affect the avast performance and protection.