Why does my Windows Firewall keep turning off briefly?

Question

I have just run a recovery on my dad's Pavilion Media Center TV m7470n Desktop, which restored XP Media Edition 2005 SP2. I then installed SP3 and used Windows Update to get more recent updates. The system is now working fine, but every so often I get a popup notification that says the Windows Firewall is off. The popup balloon quickly, and when I go into the Security Center the Windows Firewall shows up as on. I ran a full scan with Microsoft Security Essentials and I also tried Trend Micro's HouseCall and RootkitBuster. None of the scans showed any threats, but I'm still uncomfortable with the myesterious balloon popping up several times a day. Does anyone have any insight?
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Answer 1

Hello,
Thank you for posting in the HP Support forum!
1. When you go to Control Panel -> Windows Firewall
do you see the firewall in ON condition (despite the security center warnings) ?
2. Click on Start -> Run -> type services.msc and hit OK. In the list that will open, navigate to Windows Firewall and see if the service is set to Automatic and if it is started
3. Let's flush the Security Center's memory :-)
Click on Start -> Run -> type services.msc and hit OK.
In the list that will open, navigate to Windows Management Instrumentation, right-click on it, and choose Stop.
Open My Computer/Windows Explorer and goto c:\Windows\system32\WBEM
There you will see a folder called Repository.
Right click it and rename it to rep_old
Again, go to services.msc and now start the Windows Management Instrument service.
After that, please, restart your computer.
Note, that after the restart the computer will rebuild the Repository folder and the first start after that might be slower than usual. Additionally, some services might be delayed.
Additional precautions I would take:
- Please, scan your computer for the presence of malware using HitmanPro (free):
Information -> http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro/
Download -> http://www.surfright.nl/en/downloads/  (32-bit version is yours)
Windows XP is getting out of support very soon - in less than 3 months Microsoft will stop supporting it anymore. It goes into history. It is highly recommended that you upgrade to newer operating system in order to use the latest technology, enjoy better security, faster and better programs, support, etc.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-support-help
If you plan on continue using Windows XP for longer (after Microsoft stops supporting it), I would choose another antivirus and firewall solution for the computer such as third party firewall like ZoneAlarm , and/or third party antivirus software like Norton Antivirus, McAfee Internet security, Kaspersky, ESET, etc. or all-in-one suit.
Best wishes,
IT_WinSec
Hewlett-Packard employee | HP Enterprise Services
Although I work for HP, I express my personal opinion.
Visit www.hp.com/makeitmatter
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