Security Center Icons do not Appear in Notification Error

[Guest]

Did a fresh install of Windows XP with SP2 and applied all 61 critical
updates. There are no other applications installed.

When the system first came up, the Security Center displayed a Yellow Shield
telling me that updates were available. Clicking on this icon showed all of
the available updates. Since I have not yet installed anti-virus software, I
would have expected the security center to display a Red icon. However, it
does not. Even turning off the Windows firewall will not cause a Red icon to
appear.

I have checked the registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center

All of the values are set to "0" except the Value for FirstRunDisabled which
is set to "1".

When I open the Security Center when the firewall is turned off, it displays
a Red warning about the firewall, another Red warning about the absence of
anti-virus software and a Yellow warning about Windows Updates because I have
selected to only be notified when new Updates are available.

Checking and un-checking the boxes under "Change the way Security Center
alerts me" will change the registry values, but the Red icons stubbornly
refuse to display.

I have checked the Services and the Security Center service is set to
automatic and is running.

What must I do to get the Red icons to appear in tje Notification area?

 

[Guest]

An Update:

After applying 61 Critical Updates, including IE7, the notification area
will still not display Red icons. Installing the Baseline Security Analyzer
shows one critical update missing (an IE7 Security Update) so now the Yellow
Icon will not display in the Notification Area either.

What's more, the Language Bar now appears down in the taskbar and I haven't
installed any version of Office.

Does anyone have a clue as to what might be happening here?