I recently had a run in with the Windows 7 Internet Security 2012 Malware
and now I have a red x in my status bar tray, clicking it shows the Action Center saying "The Windows Security Center Service can't be started". After Googling for hours all that I was able to find about this was to press Windows Key + R, type in "services.msc", look for "Security Center" in the list, and set it's Startup Type to "Automatic (Delayed)".
My problem is that there is NO Security Center in my list of services to even SET to Automatic (Delayed). It's completely missing from the list! I have also seen them say to type "sfc /scannow" in a command prompt with elevated administration privileges to run the system file checker, but that just said "did not find any integrity violations". So i came here under recommendation of a high level tech geek at my work. I hope you can help!
thanks you so much been at this for 4 hours within a few minutes of reading your page my security system is up and running.
thankyou so much was going crazy ,your a genius thanks once again .ps do you have a solution to security in vista 64 i mean a good virus or Malware solution .kind regards m t langan
do you have a solution to security in vista 64 i mean a good virus or Malware solution
Very happy we could help. For Malware / antivirus I personally use Avast! Internet Security, and MalwareBytes
as an on-demand scanner (a sort of "second opinion"). Avast! has a free version and a subscription version, both are good but speaking just for myself, I use the full subscription version.
thankyou my man for the speedy reply ill check the sugestions out
Thank you so much. Really appreciate that complete fix.
Thanks a lot, it did work. Got service center back :-)
I'm having the same problem and tried to download your zip file but then couldn't open it because it said there wasn't a program associated with it.
Please help!!!!!
Hello to All,
I recently had the same problem where "Microsoft Security Centre" was switched off and could not be restarted, and after a little head scratching, these are my findings and a safe and practical solution to the problem.
Now we have the necessary programs , we are ready to go.
Please Note:- Because the Registry entry is altered it has a different Registry "Address" and so , as I found out , simply adding Registry Keys or Trying to run Diagnostics dont work , as essentially "Windows" does not "See" the problem as the keys are "Registered" correctly , but, misconfigured so as to prevent you from simply Re-installing "Microsoft Security Essentials" every time I tried in fact, because the keys were there, but were "De-activated" I kept getting the message:- "You can only have one instance of this program installed on your system, try uninstalling previous version and try again"
The problem at that point of course, being the fact I could not find the Program!!! as it had been removed when the Registry keys were altered, and , apart from a start-up, (Windows Logon) entry ,it did not exist anymore the only reason the start-up entry was left was to create a "loop" to confuse the system and prevent detection. (its why you deleted this entry at the start of tutorial)
I hope this Write up is helpful to all who need assistance with this problem , And would like to point out that "Autoruns" as far as I am aware is compatible with all versions of Windows, even XP . and , is a very handy program to keep on your system , you would be surprised how many programs and applications, that get loaded at Windows boot time, are not needed, they simply run at "idle" in the background quietly hogging valuable resources that slow your system down. This is especially true for XP as by modern standards its slow on a good day, especially if it is running on old hardware (try it on a 64bit machine and wow what a difference!) Resources are best loaded only as and when required by your system , the problem being that every program that you download wants to start with your operating system boot-up and so adds a start menu entry.
Next time you have a problem like this, Run "Autoruns" and check what is running at boot time, this is where 99.9% of unpleasant and annoying "Hacks" live, this is why your anti-Malware, or anti-virus asks if it can run at boot time!
Regards , Ki113R
Olympus
Single & Not Looking
Just for reference, here's a screenshot of the Security Center / Action Center being discussed in this thread:
The Solution:
You'll need to re-add the registry keys that the virus deleted. Fortunately, this is easy. I've whipped up a couple of .reg files so it's just a 2 second job.
Instructions:
If you're running a 32-Bit version of Windows extract the wscsvc.reg from the (x32) .zip file, OR
If you're on a 64-Bit version of Windows extract the one from the (x64) .zip file
Simply double-click on the wscsvc.reg file
Accept any dialog boxes asking if you're sure whether you want to do this
Reboot your computer
Upon reboot the Security Center Service will have been added back and already set to "Automatic (Delayed)" Startup Mode.
Here's the file to download: Missing Windows Security Center Fix
Also, if you're fighting with the Windows 7 Internet security Virus be sure to see our solution here: Windows 7 Internet security Virus Easy Fix