Learn Vista - Checking Security Status Using Windows Security Center

Windows Vista provides you a place to check the status of security essentials on your computer, namely through Windows Security Center. It can detects a problem with any of these security essentials, whether they are installed on your computer or not, or whether they've been out of date or not.

To check your Windows Security:

- Open Windows Security Center. Click Start menu, then click Control Panel. In Control Panel, click Check this computer's security status in Security section. (or you can use the short way: Click Start menu, then type wscui.cpl then press ENTER).

In Windows Security Center, you'll find four security points there: Firewall, Automatic updating, Malware protection, and Other Security settings. Other security settings include Internet security settings and User Account Control.

Please notice the color of the four points. Green color means it works good. While other color means you must take care of it. Maybe Windows can not find the software for it, or maybe it's out of date. To see the details and explanation, click the down-arrow button for every point.