ZoneAlarmReviews of zonealarm.com

Ran across this thread tonite while trying to find out why YouTube videos have not been acting right. I was disappointed to find that the issue might be ZoneAlarm. I used ZoneAlarm before CheckPoint acquired it. I used it for years and never had a problem. After purchasing a Windows 10 laptop a couple years ago, I allowed myself to be convinced that it was best to just allow Windows tools to protect my computer. But recently, I decided I wanted to go back to ZoneAlarm. I've tried to convince myself that ZoneAlarm could not possibly be the problem. But after uninstalling the program... well, I'm not having any trouble with YouTube videos now. I'm also glad I ran across this review thread because I was about to start digging around to see if I should roll back audio drivers, or troubleshoot my speakers, etc. It's sad when a great program is ruined.

Sadly, they used to be my go-to AV / Firewall app above all others. Not sure what changed, but my last few experiences with the app have been horrible. Go from having a gigabit connection, down to 30 mbps. Constant CPU spikes - on an i9-9900K with 64 GB RAM, running off of a lightning fast Samsung M.2 drive. The PC grinds to a crawl, the mouse jitters around the screen. Scans take over 5 hours - on that M.2 drive that I was talking about. It's a shame - I used to recommend this product to everyone. I'm an IT guy - specifically a CISSP/CCIE type of network guy, so I know how to optimize my PC and my network. We won't even go into the other bloatware that they install without asking. Long story short... stay as far away as you can. If you did buy, make sure you turn off the auto-renewal, because they will burn you with a jacked up price.

So I decided to compare a few firewalls for my win10, to choose one for my PCs. I installed them one by one, tested, then uninstalled. That's when I found out how absolutely, inexcusably terrible zonealarm is. Uninstaller cannot stop the firewall. During uninstallation it will return you an error about inability to stop firewall and then uninstaller closes. The website says you should manually disable auto launch in firewall settings, reboot pc and then uninstall. That's where the fun starts: - uninstaller doesn't tell you anything. you didn't check website before uninstalling? big mistake! - after failed uninstalling you cannot open the firewall to disable auto launch like the website suggests, because the uninstaller deletes files required to open this specific window. Your only choice it to reinstall the whole thing, disable auto launch, reboot, and then try uninstalling again. - after finally uninstalling and rebooting PC I checked Task Manager, and spotted 3 processes related to zonealarm. So the uninstaller removed firewall, but not additional software from zonealarm. - I checked where this additional software is. The firewall I installed on drive D:, while this software was in Program Files on drive C:. That's right, zonealarm installer decided that I need additional software without asking me, and then installed it ignoring the installation path I set. How nice of them. - This additional software has equally bad uninstallers, unable to uninstall anything. At this point I was fed up with this incompetence, so I removed all files manually in safe mode, and thoughtfully cleared registry from all remaining zonealarm garbage. - I've never seen a software that completely fails to uninstall itself using its own official uninstaller, until now. And I uninstalled many antiviruses in my life. Imagine how terrible the code of this software should be to behave like this. The whole process of uninstallation took me a bit more than a hour. It took me less time to remove actual viruses, I'm not kidding.

Only wanted the free Firewall which seemed OK but had to uninstall after a driver epnetflt.sys would intermittently cause Windows 10 to crash. Uninstalled via the Control Panel but after re-boot I checked Task Manager and found a number of Checkpoint processes still running which when disabled would auto restart. On further checking I found a large Checkpoint folder which had not been removed by the uninstall. Tried to delete manually but couldn't as files were in use. Booted from a live CD and deleted. This still left various Checkpoint .sys files in Windows32 folder which were being loaded by entries in the Registry. Had to use the Sysinternals Autoruns program to delete the Registry entries and then manually delete the .sys files including the troublesome epnetflt.sys file. After this another issue I had had with Windows refusing to shutdown unless the shift key was held while clicking on shutdown disappeared. This program is Malware - avoid. Now using the inbuilt Windows firewall and my whole system is running more smoothly using much less memory and disk space.

You can not uninstall this crap once installed. Prepare to reinstall windows to get rid of all of this crap. Zonealarm used to be fantastic, now it is a parasite Even when it has been uninstalled, it installs some other crap you never installed in the first place. It locks you off the internet so you can not find a fix online without a 2nd pc. I have an Intel i7 with 64gb Ram yes a £5000 pc and my amazon kindle loads pages faster after installing this crap

I have used the software for nearly a year and it works well and better that Norton which I was using. But I have impaired hearing and the Support Team in UK seem to speak with heavy Asia accents and the gable their words so they are difficult to hear. The initial 'sign up' documention leaves a lot to be desired in term of passwords and account sign in. Bill

I have deleted that nightmare about one year ago, since that time my computer runs perfectly, before that, it was simply a nightmare. Blue screen and so on where my daily routine, I don't know what the hell this company is doing but for sure it was as harmfull as a virus

You are paying over $600.00 in ten years, almost $300. in 5 years for a firewall. At the end of the year you DO NOT own the software. If you stop paying you lost it all. You are better off purchasing hardware for the same cost. Stay away from unnecessary subscription based apps. It simply is a waste of money. Antivirus software is subscription because updates on virus definitions are done. Firewalls need NONE.... Just silly to throw your money away on this.