The WSCSVC (Windows Security Center) service monitors and reports security health settings on the computer. The health settings include firewall (on/off), antivirus (on/off/out of date), antispyware (on/off/out of date), Windows Update (automatically/manually download and install updates), User Account Control (on/off), and Internet settings (recommended/not recommended). The service provides COM APIs for independent software vendors to register and record the state of their products to the Security Center service. The Action Center (AC) UI uses the service to provide systray alerts and a graphical view of the security health states in the AC control panel. Network Access Protection (NAP) uses the service to report the security health states of clients to the NAP Network Policy Server to make network quarantine decisions. The service also has a public API that allows external consumers to programmatically retrieve the aggregated security health state of the system.
This service also exists in Windows 10, 11, 7, Vista and XP.
Windows 8 edition | Windows 8 | Windows 8.1 | Windows 8.1 Update 1 |
---|---|---|---|
Core | Automatic (Delayed Start) | Automatic | Automatic |
Pro | Automatic (Delayed Start) | Automatic | Automatic |
Enterprise | Automatic (Delayed Start) | Automatic | Automatic |
Display name: | Security Center |
Service name: | wscsvc |
Type: | share |
Path: | %WinDir%\System32\svchost.exe -k LocalServiceNetworkRestricted |
File: | %WinDir%\System32\wscsvc.dll |
Error control: | normal |
Object: | NT AUTHORITY\LocalService |
Privileges: |
|
The Security Center service runs as NT AUTHORITY\LocalService in a shared process of svchost.exe. Other services might run in the same process. If Security Center fails to start, the error is logged. Windows 8 startup proceeds, but a message box is displayed informing you that the wscsvc service has failed to start.
Security Center won't start, if the following services are stopped or disabled:
1. Select your Windows 8 release and edition, and then click on the Download button below.
2. Save the RestoreSecurityCenterWindows8.bat file to any folder on your hard drive.
3. Right-click the downloaded batch file and select Run as administrator.
4. Restart the computer.
Note. Make sure that the wscsvc.dll
file exists in the %WinDir%\System32
folder. If this file is missing you can try to restore it from your Windows 8 installation media.