Understanding your protection status

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

This area also displays the status of these critical protection features:

•	Real-Time Scanning
•	Updates
•	Firewall
•	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 types of protection status are:

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
•	Firewall
•	Subscription

Your Firewall is off (gray)

Your PC might be vulnerable to some threats. The protection status area on the Home Page is 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 against online threats, turn firewall on.

Your Real-Time Scanning is starting up (gray)

Your PC is not protected against viruses, spyware, and other potential threats. The protection status area on the Home Page is gray during this startup. You only see this protection status for a few minutes.

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, read Fix a protection problem.