Understanding your protection status

The "protection status" is displayed in the top half of the Home Page. The protection status indicates whether your PC is protected, and changes according to security events that occur on your PC. For example, the protection status changes to show that your PC is "at risk" when your subscription expires.

Along with your PC's protection status, this area also displays the status of these critical protection features: Real-Time Scanning, Updates, Personal Firewall, and Subscription. These features play a crucial role in keeping your PC protected against the latest viruses, spyware, and other potential threats. Problems related to these features usually change the protection status to "at risk" and generate a notification that is displayed in the protection status area of your McAfee software. For more information about notifications and problems that change the protection status, read Fix a protection problem.

The protection status is "secure" (green), "Your Firewall is off" (gray), or "at risk" (red).

Secure (green)

Your PC is fully protected. The protection status area on the Home Page is green and indicates that these critical protection features are working to protect your PC against viruses, spyware, and other potential threats:

•	Real-Time Scanning
•	Updates
•	Personal Firewall
•	Subscription

Your Firewall is off (gray)

Your PC might be vulnerable to some threats. The protection status area on the Home Pageis gray when you turn Personal Firewall off and click Ignore in the notifcation that appears in the protection status area of the Home Page. To achieve full protection, turn firewall on.

At risk (red)

Your PC is not protected against viruses, spyware, and other potential threats. The protection status area on the Home Page is red, which indicates that there is a problem with at least one of the critical protection features.To achieve full protection, you must fix all reported critical protection problems. For more information about protection problems that change the protection status to "at risk," read, Fix a protection problem.