Start/Bootup Time with ZoneAlarm

Hell, This may have been discussed before but still I wanted to put my 2cents worth in anyway. I had been to the ZoneAlarm website and looked in their forum, for known issues about ZoneAlarm, as I had just reformatted my hard drive, and wanted to install something other than Outpost 4 (which we al know is being redeveloped due to system stability and software compatibility issues) I read there that ZoneAlarm caused a serious slow down on startup or reboot,and some people had said, this was due to several startup programs all running together, and I thought, as I had very few programs installed I might not have this problem (HOW WRONG!) I installed ZoneAlarm Pro as 1 of the first programs I reinstalled after my reformatting, and I was asked to restart the computer to finish installation. (BOOM!) it took almost 90 seconds of the window welcome scren, and another 30-40 seconds of a desktop with the bliss wallpaper and no icons at all, untill it decided to kick in and load my desktop, Then Webroot Spysweeper told me the installation files had been damaged and to re-install the program WTF! I quickly uninstalled ZoneAlarm, and everything was back to normal. Can someone please tell me what in the hell is happening? Is there a problem with this latest version of ZoneAlarm? and do they know about it, and is there a way to avoid this god almighty lengthy start up?

 

Interesting, 59 people viewed this topic already, and not 1 single answer, come on guys I desperately need help with this

 

Whats your computer specs?
When I tried Zonealarm it also slowed down my comp at boottime, but not that much. But if it dosent work good for your comp, go something else like Comodo etc.

 

Your download of ZA may be corrupt, you might try redownloading it. On the other hand I noticed that when I got rid of ZA, my computer seemed to boot up a lot quicker. I've heard the same from a lot of ZA users/ex-users. You can also head over to Firewallleaktester.com to check out test results on firewalls if you want to seek an alternative. You didn't say whether you had already purchased ZA or were trying it out.
There are a lot of people on this forum that swear by Comodo Personal Firewall. It should be noted that the Comodo result on Firewallleaktester is for an older version, the newest one (2.3.4) passed the majority of the leaktests when I tried it out. Sorry I don't remember exactly which ones, as I am using Look n Stop.
I'm not sure what your security set up is. But I've read in ZA's forums that ZA does not play well with certain AV's and Anti-Spyware programs. Did you have any security program running that might have interfered with the install?
That's all I can think of at the moment. There are more experienced people on this forum that I'm sure can tell you more.
Anyway, from what I've read here, and on other forums, is that the once lean and mean ZA is now a bloated beast that slows down your system.

 

Hmm, Interesting, thanks for your replies guys and to answer eBBOx's question as to what my computer specs are they are as follows:

PS-0246 Enhanced Intel 460w EPS Power Supply
GA-8i925X-G925 Chipset Audio/Lan/Serial ATA To Suit LGA775
3.62Ghz Prescott LGA775
1Gb DDR533 DDR2 Kingston
ATI-Radeon G-Cube X800XT 256MB PCI-Express Video Card
HDD-1614C SAMSUNG SATA 7200RPM
XP PRO Service Pack 2

As you can see, it's a pretty powerfull computer, but ZA is still screwing with it.

 

Not using ZA but have used 4.5.594 and 6.1.744.001 with no slowdowns at boot or shutdown using Celeron 1.3 and 512 MB PC100 RAM.

Try one of these (the Zonealarm version not the Celeron) and if still a problem disable all startup items until you find the one conflicting. May need to reboot again after configuring ZA since you may want to shut off some of the stuff within ZA you don't need. (ie. see if a minimal setup...ie no component control, mailsafe, etc. boots faster..)

http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/zap/releaseHistory.html

 

The first boot up after the install finishes part of the installation process.

I had Outpost 3.5 before I finally gave up and went to ZA SS. I recently switched to ZA AS to use my beloved NOD32 again. I find the ZA Pro firewall to be just as strong but doesn't hit me with as many popups. I don't notice any time difference in bootup time between ZA pro and Outpost and I have zero problems with NOD32 and AVG Anti-spyware.

Never tired Comodo but the enthusiasm for this firewall means you should at least consider it if you havn't already placed your money on ZA.

 

OK! I did what noway sugested, and installed the 6.1.744.001 version, and my computer instantly speeded back to its normal 37 second bootup time, then I got curious, and downloaded to the 6.5.737.000 version through automatic updates, and did an upgrade not a clean install, and now it still zooms along at top speed good thinking in the first instance noway

 

I tested a lot of firewalls during min. 2 weeks for each of them and the startup and shutdown times of ZApro 6.5 were better than other alternative firewalls (Outpost, Sunbelt Kerio, Comodo etc) You will see some good comments and positive results if you can search some internet sites. (firewallleaktester, matousec.... etc)

ZAPro 6.5 is very good firewall alternative for today.

 

Then I guess it´s time to upgrade because ZA Pro is taking about a minute to load on my system, that´s way too long IMO.

 

If the only thing wrong with your copy of ZA is slow boot up time and shutdown time, you are lucky. Installing the latest version is always a luck of the draw. I initially bought ver.5.5 and upgraded over the previous versions right up to version 6.1.744.001 without a hitch, while other people were having all types of problems. Then I upgraded to ver.6.5 and my luck ran out. there were bugs that I couldn't handle. I did a clean uninstall, which in itself, no one should have to go though to uninstall a software. I re-installed the last good version 6.1.744.001. Then a while later, they came out with 6.5.737.000 which was supposed to be a good one. It wasn't too bad less a few minor bugs, like a dialog box briefly appearing every time you shut down, and the AV updates practically non existant. I finally said enough and uninstalled the whole ball of wax. I have installed Comodo, and found it to be like night and day. Fast start up and shut downs, crisper response from the pc, no bugs that I'm aware of, nice interace, and if you put it on auto. it runs itself after a few options from you.

 

If you are experiencing slow start-ups which should not be the case, I recommend you perform a disk defragmentation. Some people just blow over such a simple maintainance utility espcially on NTFS file system but it does make a difference. I am a gamer and therefore always require my computer performance to be in tip-top form.

I recommend defragmenting right after installing security softwares, Windows Updates or after installing a program that takes up alot of disk space. If you have Diskeeper, a boot-time defrag will certainly help heaps.

 

Unhappy viewer, Good point! May I elaborate on that by saying that if you run Disk Cleaner and delete all the garbage that has accumulated, and do a disk check to fix any errors, and maybe clean your cache, that speeds up your pc too.