I installed ZoneAlarm Pro v5 "cold" not expecting any problems, but immediately encountered major problems. This happened two days
ago. The only way I succeeded in backing out was to use the Windows XP System Restore function. I subsequently have done some
research on this, and still do not know precisely what went wrong, but the following is a summary of my fiasco with trying to use
ZoneAlarm Pro v5.0.590.015:
To begin, I am running Windows XP Pro SP1. For a Virus Scanner, I am running McAfee Virus Scan v8.0. This is a what I call a
standalone version of McAfee Virus Scan, i.e., it does NOT come bundled with other products like an optional firewall. I previously
ran McAfee Virus Scan v7.0, which did come bundled with McAfee Firewall, that I never installed, since it was mutually exclusive
with whatever version of ZoneAlarm Pro that I was running at that time. I mention this information because others have reported
different problems when they installed ZoneAlarm Pro v5, and also had some version of McAfee Virus Scan. In my case, I encountered
no problem INSTALLING ZoneAlarm Pro v5 with McAfee Virus Scan v8.0. ZoneAlarm Pro v5 appeared to recognize the existence of my
McAfee Virus Scan, but that was about it.
After installing ZoneAlarm Pro v5 and rebooting my computer, I attempted to go out on the Internet. I was able to connect to the
initial Microsoft MSN.com home page, but when I clicked on My MSN, my computer hung/froze in an rather odd way: I could move my
cursor, but no matter I clicked on, NOTHING WOULD RESPOND. When I entered CTL+ALT+DELETE, I got no response. When I clicked on the
Start button to shut down my computer, I got no response. However, when I clicked on these things, there was an hour glass icon, so
my computer was obviously hung on something. The only thing I could do was to hit the power off button on my computer.
After rebooting in this manner, I decided to try one thing. I had previously saved all my settings from the previous version of
ZoneAlarm Pro v4.5.594, so I decided to restore these settings into ZoneAlarm Pro v5, and see if ZoneAlarm Pro v5 would work with
all of my old settings. Unfortunately, I got the same results as before.
After rebooting again, I knew that it was time to back out. When I attempted to reinstall my previous version of ZoneAlarm Pro
v4.5.594 that I had saved, I was informed that I must first uninstall ZoneAlarm Pro v5. So not knowing that there were any problems
in uninstalling ZoneAlarm Pro v5, I simply went to the "Add or Remove Programs" menu in the Windows XP Control Panel Settings, and
"uninstalled" ZoneAlarm Pro v5. This "uninstall" ran normally, and required me to reboot my computer.
After rebooting my computer, I attempted to reinstall my previous version of ZoneAlarm Pro v.4.5.594. During this attempted
reinstallation, I got numerous errors. When I attempted to bring up my old version 4.5 of ZoneAlarm Pro, I got the following error:
"The procedure entry point tvGetIntegrityUserName could not be located in the dynamic link library VSPUBAPI.dll." When I searched
for this .dll on my computer, I found it, and when I clicked on its properties, I discovered that it was for ZoneAlarm Pro v5. I
then deleted this VSPUBAPI.dll, and uninstalled my old version of Zone Alarm Pro, which required me to again reboot my computer.
I again "reinstalled" my old version of ZoneAlarm Pro v.4.5.594. If I remember correctly, this installation did not give me any
errors. However, it did require me to again reboot my computer.
Unfortunately, ZoneAlarm Pro v.4.5.594 did not come up, which it should have after rebooting my computer. I then attempted to start
ZoneAlarm Pro v.4.5.594 manually, but I immediately got a non-descriptive Microsoft error message that merely told me that there was
a problem with ZoneAlarm Pro v.4.5.594, and wanted me to report this problem to Microsoft. Reporting this problem to ZoneAlarm
would have made more sense, but I reported it to Microsoft anyway as requested. I wonder if Microsoft forwarded whatever I sent to
them about this problem to ZoneAlarm.
At this point, I was stumped, since I obviously could not get my old version of ZoneAlarm Pro v.4.5.594 to work like it did before.
Before I upgraded to Windows XP Pro last fall, I ran Windows 98SE, which had a very useful tool called the Windows System File
Checker, if I remember its name correctly. That tool would enable me to find out what system files had changed between my previous
installation of ZoneAlarm Pro v.4.5.594 and my attempted reinstallation of this same product, and with that tool I might have been
able to figure out what all went wrong when I "uninstalled" ZoneAlarm Pro v5, unless the problem was in the Windows XP Registry.
Unfortunately, Microsoft removed this useful tool from Windows XP, so I had no way to determine what went wrong with my attempted
"uninstallation" of ZoneAlarm Pro v5. Obviously it left a mess behind. I wish that Microsoft had retained the old Windows System
File Checker in Windows XP. It would have been very useful in attempting to diagnose what all went wrong in this situation, unless
the problem was in the Windows XP Registry.
At this point, I realized that my only remaining option was to use the Windows XP System Restore function to restore to my last
checkpoint, which I then did. To my pleasant surprise, this worked. My old ZoneAlarm Pro v.4.5.594 came up OK with its old
settings, which I thought I would have to restore from my previous backup of these settings.
When ZoneAlarm comes out with a new allegedly "fixed" version 5 of ZoneAlarm Pro, I MIGHT try it. However, in addition to backing
up all of my settings from ZoneAlarm Pro v.4.5.594, I will also take a special manual checkpoint using the Windows XP System Restore
function.
Richard A. Landkamer
Richard Urban said:
Many problems here also
1. Many web pages refuse to load
2. ZoneAlarm Pro refuses to remember its last open condition and defaults to
a random view
3. When trying to manually download virus definitions, or any file from any
web site, the download will not occur.
Go back in a few minutes, without changing anything, and it works ok. Try
again immediately and it again, doesn't work
4. E-mail virus scanning has been screwed up
I have gone back to the older version (ver 4.5.594.000) and ALL of these
problems are non existent.
--
Regards:
Richard Urban
aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard
Bee said:
A riot. Savour the pandemonium in the peer-to-peer Support Forum:
http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board?board.id=inst&page=1
If you have yet to upgrade to v5.0.590.015, wait for a revision.
If you have problems after the upgrade, read some of the solutions
offered.
One is to go back to the last v4 update.
"...if you do not have a copy of the last version of ZA you can get a
copy of the last release from the release history page at zonelabs.
http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/znalm/zaReleaseHistory.html
http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/zap/releaseHistory.html
The uninstall the version 5 [is] like this,
go into the start menu and the zonelabs entry and right click on the
uninstaller and select properties. Now in the target box you need to add
a space and then /clean to the end so that it looks something like this
"C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zauninst.exe" /clean then click
apply and then OK. open ZA and turn off the load on boot option, then
reboot and then run the uninstaller (the one you change the shortcut
for) This will get rid of ZA for you.Now go to your windows temp folder
and delete everything, then find the folder named Internet logs and
delete it then empty your recycle bin. ZA should be gone. Now reboot
Windows and install the last version of ZA and if it asks then do a
clean install. Unfortunately if you do not have a backup database from
the previous version 4 install then you probably will not be able to
re-import the new version. You can try but the differences between the
two are large...."
http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=inst&message.id=11594
Bee.
