This has been a failing of ZoneLabs for a number of years – effectively getting customers to pay to be BETA testers! – and is the primary reason I switched to Kaspersky IS. I had the same generalissues with ZoneAlarm IS v7 and ForceField and will not be buying any more of their products.

I have also experienced the same disregard for customers from Netgear on the hardware front with hopeless draft-n routers and non-existent support.

It’s a worrying trend from vendors who regularly appeared in the A-List for a number of years.

I have had similar experiences, working as an IT professional I get to see Zone Alarm a lot and the PC’s i have encountered with this new V8 on have all been slowed to a stop and in two cases have not been able to access the Internet.

whats going on Zone Labs, you really have lost your way!

Here are the instructions. I stress we’ve not tested these out, and can’t be held liable for any damages suffered as a result. These instructions are (supposedly) for removing ZoneAlarm 8 on Vista:

01.) Restart your computer
02.) When you see the screen go black and it starts booting back up keep tapping the “F8″ key (at the top of your keyboard)
03.) This should bring up a menu. Choose Safe Mode off the menu by using the arrow keys on the keyboard to highlight Safe Mode and press Enter
04.) If you get a message asking to go to Safe Mode, choose Yes. If you get a help and support window, close this.
05.) Once you are at the desktop, Click Start, Computer
06.) Click Tools, Folder Options, View Tab

NOTE: If you cannot see the menu bar with the Tools menu on it, you have to press the Alt-key on the keyboard and the menu bar should then be visible.

07.) Place a dot next to “Show Hidden Files and Folders”
08.) Remove the check from “Hide Protected Operating System Files
(Recommended)”
09.) Choose Yes to the warning
10.) Click OK
11.) Double click C:

Note: In the future steps if you do not see any files or folders, please click the “Show Files” link to view them.

12.) Double Click the Program Files Folder
13.) Right Click the Zone Labs Folder, click Delete, and choose Yes

NOTE: If you cannot delete the entire folder, please open the Zone Labs -> ZoneAlarm folder and delete out as many of the files listed here as possible.

14.) Close this window
15.) Click Start, Computer
16.) Double Click C:
17.) Double Click the Windows Folder
18.) Right Click the Internet Logs Folder, click Delete, and choose Yes
19.) Double Click the System32 Folder
20.) Right Click the Zone Labs Folder, click Delete, and choose Yes

NOTE: If you cannot delete the entire folder, please open the Zone Labs folder and delete out as many of the files listed here as possible.

21.) Locate and delete the following files in the System32 folder if they are present:

- vsconfig.xml
- vsxml.dll
- vsregexp.dll
- vsdata.dll
- vsdata95.vxd
- vsdatant.sys
- vsmonapi.dll
- vspubapi.dll
- vsinit.dll
- vsutil.dll
- vswmi.dll
- zlcommdb.dll
- zlcomm.dll
- zpeng24.dll
- zpeng25.dll

22.) Clear your Temp Directory per the instructions below.

- Go to Start -> Run
- Type %temp% and click OK
- Select all of these files and delete them

23.) Clear the Prefetch folder per the instructions below.

- Go to Start -> Run
- Type Prefetch and click OK
- Select all of these files and delete them

NOTE: If you do not have the Run option on the Start menu, you can press and hold the Windows logo key and tap the letter R.

24.) Remove the necessary registry entries:

*Important Advisory: Deleting registry entries incorrectly may cause serious problems to your operating system, which may necessitate the need to reinstall it. Please make sure you are able to perform these deletions correctly before you decide to edit the entries. If you are not sure, you should seek help from someone who is familiar with editing the registry.

For information about how to edit the registry in Windows, from your desktop, click Start -> Run -> and type regedit. Click on Help -> Help Topics. Under the Contents tab, click Change Keys and Values (this may be found under the How to… section).

Also, you should always make a backup of the registry before editing it. You can find this in the same section of the Help files.

To remove the needed registry entries, go to Start -> Run and type in regedit. Choose OK, and use the folders on the left side of the Registry Editor window to navigate to the specified directories below. Note that you will remove the entire folder specified (eg. Zone Labs, vsmon, vsdatant):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Zone Labs
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\vsmon
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\vsdatant

25.) Close this window, then empty your recycle bin.
26.) Restart the computer.
27.) Try to install the latest version again.

Since last Monday, Check Point has stopped to ship version 8 with the automatic upgrade system.

This information is from a ZA forum administrator post from yesterday (Friday 12th). In this post, they also recommend to downgrade to version 7. To my knowledge, it is the first public statement from Checkpoint that something could be wrong with version 8.

I too got sucker punched by Checkpoint’s Zone Alarm 8 “update”. After a clean install on XP sp3, I get system crashes, 15 min shut down times, 20+ min boot times, disappearing task bar… seems like zone alarm itself is some kind of virus!

To make matters worse, the symptoms didnt take effect for several days, so it wasnt apparent that zone alarm was the cause. That means hours spent trying find out what was going on. Eventually, I also found, and followed instructions on the ZA forum to remove all the junk their program leaves behind, AFTER “uninstalling” it…

But the junk program removal instructions didnt work for me. Following the instructions seems to have resolved the instability, and the shut down problems, but I’m left with a 20+ min boot time… after the complete uninstall.

Of course, zone alarms “customer service” is non-existent, but I see now they are offering a BETA patch for v8, encouraging it’s “valued customers” to report any problems they have with it…

…and there was I, thinking that all the trouble I’ve had with ZoneAlarm was my own fault….

Following the instructions that Barry Collins passed on, however, ( and I was amazed at the number of files that remained after supposedly uninstalling ZA ) I’ve now managed to remove all but one file (Access denied). Specifically SPYBLOCK.DLL version 2.3.0.11 in C:\Program Files\ZoneAlarmSB\bar\1.bin. Can anyone please suggest how this final one can be winkled out?
As an aside, since shutting down ZA, I could swear my machine boots and runs faster than before – but perhaps this is nobbut wishful thinking!