Version 2.3.5.62 was released Friday 8th with Launchpad completely removed and more stable due to a few bug fixes.

Passed PCFlanks, Shieldups and Pcaudit tests for me.

I've been using ZA free for about 4 years with no issues. However, I saw the results of the leaktests (mentioned in another thread) and saw that Comodo was farther up the list in passing the tests. Like I said, I've been hack free for a long time. Is it really worth the switch? I'm pretty secure as far as that goes.

NAV 2005
Spy Sweeper 4.5.9.7099 (thanks to you guys here)
Spybot Search & Destroy
AdAware SE Personal
SpywareBlaster
CWShredder
CCleaner

I liked ZAfree too but after updating to v65.731.000 I started getting random BSOD's at bootup or reboots plus bootup time was slowed a little. When I switched to Comodo v2.3.3.33beta the BSOD's stopped and bootup and shutdown was quicker. When Comodo 2.3.4 came out I uninstalled the beta and then found out it some a couple new bugs appear needed fixing so went back ZAfree v65.731.000 and bootup and sutdowns slowed and random BSOD's returned. Once Comodo v2.3.5 was released friday 8th I went back to Comodo and love it, smaller now without Launchpad installed, less memory usage and more flexable settup than ZAfree so I'm staying with Comodo.

That's my excuse for changing. If your interested, give Comodo a try and if you still like ZA better and have no problems with it stick with ZA.

Thanks for the reply wheelie4. I downloaded it today. Maybe if I get tweaky I might install it and give it a go. Can't hurt and it's free. Should I uninstall ZA or just shut it down?

I dont' mean to intrude here, but I have been reading this thread with interest. I recently was investigating a new firewall and had wanted to try Zone Alarm and Comodo. I ended up with something else, but I did learn that you should never install a firewall until the old one is completely uninstalled. There's too much chance for conflict, and the only way to know for sure how the new firewall performs is to have a clean install.

Zone Alarm is not easy to uninstall and I have never done it, but I found this link:

http://www.nohold.net/noHoldCust25/Prod_1/Articles55646/CompleteUninstallNonNT.html

Why doesn't this forum have an edit? Anyway, the one exception to total uninstall is the Windows XP built in firewall. It can just be turned off while installing any 3rd party firewall program.

I agree with OldRebel. Do a clean uninstall first if you plan to try another firewall. There's a ZA host here named Hoov that has a site with ZA help. Here's the link for an easier clean uninstall guide.

http://www.donhoover.net/uninstall.html

Thanks for that new info. One reason I never tried Zone Alarm is the uninstall difficulty. This info should be helpful for everyone.

You're right about the being helpful for everyone. Thanks for the replies. OldRebel you were not intruding, thank you for the advice. I'm not having any troubles with ZA, I was just being curious about a better firewall. But if it is a pain to uninstall I might just forget the whole thing.

I don't mean to scare you off from Comodo. But if you try it, you probably need to do research on how to remove it also. I dont' have any info on that. It might be posted somewhere here at CastleCops or at the Comodo forums.

OK, If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That has just become my motto!

Hey folks. I have recently used both the newest versions of ZA Free and Comodo. While without doubt we are talking about far different levels of protection here, (Comodo passing all leak tests) I personally don't feel I need my Firewall to pass all of them, and have used Windows XP without too many worries in the past. I just really wanted a basic set up with a little more security, which brings me back to these two Firewalls. ZA Free while very basic, at least gave me some outbound protection that Windows Firewall doesn't, but unfortunately both free ZA versions 6.1.744 and 6.5.737 also gave me a BSOD. The last one with the newest version said something about netbios being enabled on my PC, but since my wife was on at the time I didn't fully read everything, and just rebooted it. Later on then and slightly upset about this, I uninstalled it to try latest version of Comodo once again. To shorten all this, ZA free seemed to only give me a BSOD after installing AOL AVS Antivirus which Comodo (that I had previously been using) didn't, but this combo slowed down my PC much more than ZA Free and AVS did. I then tried Comodo with Antivir and while it helped a little it was still slow. Now I am back to Windows Firewall and Antivir, but thinking of trying ZA Free with AVG Free because I haven't heard of any conflicts with those two. As far as ZA uninstall doing the /clean method removed everything just fine and then running RegSeeker and removing a few registry entries my self (clearly spelled zone alarm) finished it. Comodo uninstalled quickly and without any problems. (need to delete some folders left over in various application data areas and of course in programs) Sorry for long post, it's just that I don't know if AVG Free's lower detection rate and ZA Free's problems are the anwser, but after using latest version of Sunbelt Kerio Firewall in the past and also having troubles, I'm about ready to just use AOL AVS again with Windows XP Firewall and be done with it.

In regards to uninstalling programs..
I have gotten into the habit of running a registry cleaner after uninstall and reboot.
There is usually some traces left from program unistalls.I just clean the registry stuff that I can identify with the program that I removed.

I'm not sure this goes in this forum, but I haven't seen anywhere else to put it.

I too clean the registry after uninstalling programs. And I know that this can be very dangerous. Are you saying that I should NOT just delete everything that say, Registry Mechanic or CCleaner says that need to be deleted? Why are there registry cleaners out there for non-guru types like myself? We don't know that much about what we are doing, and can seriously mess up with one keystroke. I have started, sometimes, to be selective and delete only things, like you said, associate with the program in question.