Recently (last week or two) I have been having a problem with my Windows Firewall turning off by itself. A red shield appears in the Systray with a message that the firewall is turned off and no longer protecting the computer. I either click on this message which takes me to the "Security Center" or go to the Control Panel "Windows Firewall" icon and turn the firewall back on by clicking the "On - Recommended" radio button. But within an hour or two, I get the same red shield warning that the Windows Firewall is back OFF. Seems like if I am working on the machine, this happens a couple or three times a day.

Same exact problem here.

I have the same problem of firewall switching itself off. It is XP-Pro SP3 with all auto updates applied. This has progressively got worse (now I cannot restart the firewall) over the last 3-4 weeks. Originally I could restart the fw but on shutdown/startup it would turn itself off. Problem solved by downloading and installing the free Wise registry cleaner. It cleaned up registry and problem went away..!

I had this same problem and put what I did to resolve it in this blog: Take a look at http://geektropia.blogspot.com Hope it helps.

I have XP Professional and the firewall keeps shuting itself off. I have gone all the way through the Windows instructions found athttp://help.live.com/help.aspx including uninstalling Window Live One Care and reinstalling. I was so happy until the next day when the same thing happened all over again. Today both the firewall and virus protection had turned themselves off. The good news was that I was able to get them back on after about 10 minutes. I emailed the windows support for help and they linked me up here. What's next?

I have the same problem of firewall switching itself off. It is XP-Pro SP3 with all auto updates applied. This has progressively got worse (now I cannot restart the firewall) over the last 3-4 weeks. Originally I could restart the fw but on shutdown/startup it would turn itself off.Problem solved by downloading and installing the free Wise registry cleaner. It cleaned up registry and problem went away..!This fixed my problem as well Thank You.

Misused "Proposed As Answer". Have not tried Wise Registry Cleaner.