ZoneAlarm not cooperating with XP MCE install, worked fine before

[brassplyer]

I've been using ZoneAlarm deadbeat moocher version for several years.
After doing a clean install of XP Media Center if you haven't seen my
recent flurry of posts, adding ZA brings things to a grinding halt.
Half-loaded desktop, nothing responds. I noticed this behavior right
after adding ZA. Things seem okay right after the initial install of
ZA, but trouble starts on reboot.

Went to Safe Mode, unistalled it, things fine again. Tried installing
the old version of ZA that worked previously, same problem. Uninstall,
things back to normal. At first I thought it might be some conflict
with Windows Firewall, but turning off WF made no difference.

I've got ZA running on another XP Home machine, no problems, and there
were none on the XP MCE machine either until now.

Any suggestions?

 

[brassplyer]

If it's important info, the machine is fully updated within SP2, have
been avoiding going to SP3 since I heard of numerous issues. It's
never had SP3 on it.

 

[smlunatick]

If it's important info, the machine is fully updated within SP2, have
been avoiding going to SP3 since I heard of numerous issues. It's
never had SP3 on it.

Have you updated Zone Alarm Free? There are regular updates

Also, Zone Alarm is not an "intelligent" firewall software. You will
still need to "train" it by setting which Programs / Applications can
access the local "network" and the Internet.

 

[brassplyer]

Have you updated Zone Alarm Free?  There are regular updates

I d/l'd whatever the latest version is from the ZA website. But again,
the version from '06 was working without issue before the reinstall.

Also, Zone Alarm is not an "intelligent" firewall software.   You will
still need to "train" it by setting which Programs / Applications can
access the local "network" and the Internet.

It doesn't even allow the system to work once it's installed.. Upon
reboot I get a half loaded desktop - a blank toolbar/taskbar, no
icons, and a locked up system.

 

[relic]

If it's important info, the machine is fully updated within SP2, have
been avoiding going to SP3 since I heard of numerous issues. It's
never had SP3 on it.

Unless you're running an HP machine with an AMD CPU, SP3 doesn't have
'numerous issues.' And HP released a fix for their problems months ago.