Trying to uninstall Zone Alarm

Hi Guys,

I have spent days searching the net and also sent support requests to Zone Alarm.
I have bought a laptop from EBay, it all ready has Windows XP on it, as well as zone alarm. The problem is I cant surf the net through a network cable in to my ADSL modem, but I can through wireless. I was told it is a policy on the firewall, the guy I had around tries to uninstall it but it asks for a password, ? so he tried renaming the folder c:/program files/checkpoint to c:/program files/checkpointold then I couldnt access the net at all and had to put it back.

Is there anything I can do other than formatting the hard drive and starting from scratch.

Nice forum too, thanks for any help.

Phil

 

I am not sure if it makes any difference but I am logged in as "administrator" I have managed to uninstall everything else i didnt want except for this.

Thanks again,

Phil

 

Have you tried system restore?
Might be your best bet,tring to find a saved restore point before zonealarm was installed.
If not is there any way to contact the seller from e bay and get the password from him/her?

 

Thanks for that, I have just had a look and System Restore is disabled, I also found a program called SIW.exe that some one else recommended for a similar problem with no luck.

It has very worryingly shown up my MSN account and email account passwords and also other internet accounts I use.

 

What about tring to uninstall ZA in safe mode?
Might not work being password protected.
Worth a shot thou.

You could ask at http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs
The more people you ask the better chance you will get this resolved.

 

I am not a computer expert. But when I have problems uninstalling a program, I use killbox to untinstall it.

You might try downloading killbox and using it to uninstall Zone Alarm. I have only used this method 2 or 3 times, bit it has never failed me.

EDIT: I also read about a program called unlocker. You may consider that too.

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/#download

 

Don't know if they will work in your case but worth a try

http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=AllowAccess&message.id=103

http://www.pcanswers.co.uk/tips/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=34202&subsectionid=616

 

It would seem like ZoneAlarm customer service would be able to tell you the password if you had the product key. I realize you can sometimes get a customer service rep that is pretty clueless, especially with CheckPoint, but maybe you could try again. I think they have some sort of tech support as well. But my experience with ZoneAlarm is that all they will suggest is for you to make some purchase from them. They may have the worst customer service out there.

On another note, would something like a password recovery tool work? Maybe there is some program that could actually reveal the password, where ever it is stored on your system. Just find out where ZoneAlarm stores the password and see if a program will reveal it. Might be worth a shot.

http://www.nirsoft.net/password_recovery_tools.html

 

Phil if you want to clear the password simply reset the database in ZA. To do so start your computer in safe mode , navigate to the c:\windows\internet logs and delete the backup.rdb and iamdb.rdb files in the folder.

 

My number one gripe with ZA firewall... the uninstall. No one should have to go through the suggestions that have been made to uninstall a firewall. The solutions offered for getting rid of it can and do work in most instances.

 

Hi fmz98 ~ not your birth year I hope ~

If that neat looking trick provided by gre87y work's out, the "extended za uninstall routine" should you need it.


Steve

 

From my experience with ZoneAlarm, when I used to have it, I found the best method of uninstalling is this:

1:Remove from Add/Remove Programs
2:Navigate to C:\Windows\System32
3:Locate the ZoneAlarm folder and delete
4:Open the registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and delete the ZoneAlarm Key
5:Go to C:\Windows Locate the Prefetch folder and Delete it
6: Reboot your PC

Bingo! ZoneAlarm is gone for good, without a trace

 

WOW! Thanks! I had problems with ZA. I also had problems with not having
Windows Update not loading, and saw system restore would not work.Along with several other script problems.Was going to re-format until after removing what you said cleared it all up. Will never go back to ZA! I have another PC with the same problem, going to uninstall the ZA-SS and see if that takes care of that.

 

Hello Phil,

I would highly recommend you to make a safe format of the HD, and reinstall windows etc. (do I really need to say why?)

 

Here is another possible way to uninstall ZA completely. I haven't tried it so judge it for yourself.
http://www.greenwood.iwarp.com/sgcomputer.html

 

Ok I hooked up my other PC and un-installed ZA SS. Bingo I could access Windows Update, could use system restore and other programs that seem to use some kind of script. I just can't figure why ZA was causing this mess, anyone had this problem? Or maybe understand why and how it happened??

 

Glad you took my Advice dwax and it cleaned up the ZoneAlarm mess for you Zone alarm has a habit of installing kerb crawlers ( well thats what I call them anyway )Zuch as the one which installed into your System32 folder, which I bet you never knew was even there this way ZoneAlatm can actually phone home back to Zone Labs,and report your activity on the Web OK! it does a good job (or used to do) of protecting your computer, but at a price of not alltogether being 100% secure from the outside. Its best left alone, the earlier versions were far more adapt at being a firewall, but since version 6 was introduced, ZoneAlarm has become a **** Farm! for problems galore Just take a look at their forums and you'll see

 

All the above suggestions are great. I was thinking though, if you just got this computer and haven't put any of your stuff in it why not just re-install Windows. If you don't have an installation disk, and have a system restore that brings you back to the factory installation, why not just do that. I just did a system restore on my daughter's computer and it was quick and easy.

 

Did the earlier versions "phone home" as well? If not does anyone know at what version this problem began?

 

I think the best person to ask is Escalader, a member of Wilders forum. He has discussed the ZA "phone home" from his experiences in many posts.