App Review ZoneAlarm Extreme Security Next Gen 2024 - With Malware Tests

[andytan]

Really slowed down, like click and nothing happens and no program responds anymore.

I installed a trial three days ago and was running into issues on day 2 where all physical keyboard inputs no longer registered after what seemed like a random amount of time passing. I disabled the anti-keylogger element to see if that helped without any noticeable improvement. Uninstalled it earlier today and PC blue screened at the very end. The anti-keylogger program wasn't uninstalled with the main AV though. I saw it in task manager when I restarted and had to execute the uninstall for it specifically.

Maybe it's due to how it blue screened during uninstall but there are still other programs running from ZoneAlarm in the background. ZoneAlarmCrashHandler64.exe & ZoneAlarmCrashHandler.exe were still out there running in the background.

Looks like there are a few bugs for them to work through on the consumer side of things.

Edit:
2 years ago some firefox users reported crashes tied to the ZA anti-keylogger. Thinking back I had firefox open in 100% of instances when my keyboard issues occurred. I didn't have to be typing in firefox though for the issue to appear. Could be tied to having firefox open in general can eventually trigger the problem.

1777960 - Crash in [@ TF_Notify] - Crash with ZoneAlarm Anti-Keylogger on Windows 11 22H2 when starting to type

RESOLVED (gstoll) in External Software Affecting Firefox - Other. Last updated 2023-10-19.

bugzilla.mozilla.org

 

[vonvon]

I think f-secure - Avira - Trend and Eset remain light, focused and effective antimalware.

 

[simmerskool]

The days of little anti-virus programs are gone Norton Avast same company even Gdata which i try to like but memory hungry
all are huge installs 1.6 GB at least they give you everything even if you do not play games all of them are still going to slow you down
i have a beast of a machine

here G Data is running 9 modules (that I see in Task Manager) using 406 mb RAM on VM with 16 gb RAM. G Data does not "feel" slow here (fwiw). G Data was on high side in AV-C performance test Oct 2023. And MS Defender scored even higher (slow) but neither feel heavy at the keyboard.

 

[Trident]

For me Check Point Harmony and ZoneAlarm have no impact on day to day operations (now not sure about gaming, video rendering and this sort of tasks). I haven’t experienced any slowdowns with any solution actually. Simply from numbers perspective, the memory usage is higher than Avast but CPU usage is about the same, if not lower.

Anti-bot may slow loading of pages on the first attempt to open, but if the domain has a good reputation, it is thereafter cached and not scanned again. This in ZoneAlarm should not apply, as connections are not held, but inspected in the background, so not sure what is causing the slowdown. I don’t add any other security related plugins or software.

My Dell testing PC is fairly average, it’s got 11th Gen Core i5, Intel Iris GPU and a Samsung SSD with a read speed of about 550MB.

Performance optimisations are needed in some areas of CP/ZoneAlarm, some of them have been implemented already, like optimising Application Control rules evaluation and optimising execution of advanced Behavioural Guard signatures. More performance improvements are scheduled for the next 3 months with drastic memory usage reduction coming as early as 88.80 (to complement the low memory mode which now can be enabled manually).

 

[Shadowra]

I installed ZA on a VM. After a couple of days of testing the VM is running extremely slow. Restarting or start back from a snapshot gives the same errors. ZA generates alot of process dumps (processess AR_Service, ZANG_AV an ZANG_MgsSvc). Firewall is still very basic.

It has also a problem with detection of script based malware samples (bat, Powershell, mshta).

The VM is a W11 harden one I use for all anti-virus products. ZA is the only one that reacts strange. So I pass at moment and I wait for the next big release.

Same observation on my VM... so I'm going to postpone the ZoneAlarm test until an update is available...

 

[Trident]

Same observation on my VM... so I'm going to postpone the ZoneAlarm test until an update is available...

They released 4.3 recently (no notes published yet). I had discovered critical issues on my tests before which were all reported and seem fixed. Still, it has to be kept in mind that ZoneAlarm will have lower protection capabilities than Harmony Endpoint and this will be for the reasons below, (not only):
-Much lower emulation size
-Inability to chose how detections of different confidences are handled
-Impossibility to enroll to experimental signatures and machine learning models (possible in HEP).
-Some components very much older, for example the compilation date of the anti-bot modules in HEP is last month, whereas in ZoneAlarm, it is January. Other engines are 3-5 months older as well.

 

[Shadowra]

They released 4.3 recently (no notes published yet). I had discovered critical issues on my tests before which were all reported and seem fixed. Still, it has to be kept in mind that ZoneAlarm will have lower protection capabilities than Harmony Endpoint and this will be for the reasons below, (not only):
-Much lower emulation size
-Inability to chose how detections of different confidences are handled
-Impossibility to enroll to experimental signatures and machine learning models (possible in HEP).
-Some components very much older, for example the compilation date of the anti-bot modules in HEP is last month, whereas in ZoneAlarm, it is January. Other engines are 3-5 months older as well.

That's why I'm thinking of testing Harmony, I need to find the link for the trial...

 

[Trident]

That's why I'm thinking of testing Harmony, I need to find the link for the trial...

Is it this one:

Harmony Endpoint (SandBlast Agent) Demo | Endpoint Security | Check Point Software

Request a demo to view Harmony Endpoint - Check Point’s complete EPP and EDR solution, formerly known as SandBlast Agent - full capabilities and to answer any questions.

pages.checkpoint.com

 

[Shadowra]

Is it this one:

Harmony Endpoint (SandBlast Agent) Demo | Endpoint Security | Check Point Software

Request a demo to view Harmony Endpoint - Check Point’s complete EPP and EDR solution, formerly known as SandBlast Agent - full capabilities and to answer any questions.

pages.checkpoint.com

Thanks

(too bad my PCs migrated to GravityZone on trial)

 

[SumTingWong]

Does Zonealarm have its own uninstall tool?

 

[Trident]

Does Zonealarm have its own uninstall tool?

I recommend using Revo (or simiar) to get rid of ZoneAlaem remnants. The official uninstall tool will be available soon, according to ZoneAlarm.

 

[gery79]

i
was addicted to ZA and AVG years ago. but with everything that they have been going through i am switching between Norton and ZA . Norton is more stable and really quiet . I love ZA but i have to wait another year till things settle . trying it again really slowed my computer down

 

[TuxTalk]

i
was addicted to ZA and AVG years ago. but with everything that they have been going through i am switching between Norton and ZA . Norton is more stable and really quiet . I love ZA but i have to wait another year till things settle . trying it again really slowed my computer down

Same for me, i really like ZA but my computer does not. Really slow.

 

[Dave Russo]

Same for me, i really like ZA but my computer does not. Really slow.

What made you decide to change from Trend Micro,it seemed you were very happy with it not long ago?

 

[TuxTalk]

What made you decide to change from Trend Micro,it seemed you were very happy with it not long ago?

The detection rate is lesser than for example ZA, Norton, McAfee, Avast.
I still have the subscription and i like the company ( i like Asian companies ) So i will support them

 

[TuxTalk]

The days of little anti-virus programs are gone Norton Avast same company even Gdata which i try to like but memory hungry
all are huge installs 1.6 GB at least they give you everything even if you do not play games all of them are still going to slow you down
i have a beast of a machine and i have tried them all except zone alarm looks way to heavy and i feel slow down even Norton gamer edition
another bloatware of crap really a gaming optimizer. no home user needs any of this extra protection .and please do not say the new cloud mcafee
is light it still has a lot running they just do not show it install Revo and look at all the crap thats running besides their pop-ups annoying as hell.
Wow i feel Better....lol

Need a pill ?

 

[andytan]

The detection rate is lesser than for example ZA, Norton, McAfee, Avast.
I still have the subscription and i like the company ( i like Asian companies ) So i will support them

Did you encounter many false positives with ZA? I came across almost a dozen, some files within Steam, others in GOG, along with some other software. It also had some issues letting some microsoft components install as well.

 

[TuxTalk]

Zonealarm uninstall tool ;-)
https://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/support/dl_stg/ZangClean.exe

 

[andytan]

Zonealarm uninstall tool ;-)
https://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/support/dl_stg/ZangClean.exe

Thank you! It removed some 70K files left over from the regular uninstall process, all thats left are some logs. I'll call that a success.

 

[TuxTalk]

After a long support chat with ZA, me complaining the Slowness , they offer me a solution that might fix the issue.
The interesting part is that you have to follow the download link to download ZoneAlarm ES NG.

Under here a part of the chat :

It is and we can actually attempt to adjust the ZA setting and see if it will fix the problem. To troubleshoot, I suggest to reinstall ZA. But before you reinstall it, check for windows updates and install if there are any pending and available updates. After that, proceed to download and run the clean file before you reinstall ZA.

https://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/support/dl_stg/ZangClean.exe
You may follow the prompt for the cleaning process. And use the link below to reinstall.

Download ZoneAlarm Software

The ultimate PC security software, combining a firewall, anti-virus, privacy protection, and more!

www.zonealarm.com

If ever you will encounter the same problem after the reinstallation, adjust the ZA setting and follow the steps below.
1. Open ZoneAlarm and click Firewall.
2. Click Zone Rules.
3. Click Edit to the right of your Home/Wifi connection.
4. Click the Zone dropdown box and select " Trusted".
5.Click Save
6. Click "Back" located at the upper left corner .
7. Click Firewall Settings
8. Move both Trusted and Public Slider to "Medium"

Close ZoneAlarm and Reboot your PC for the changes to take effect.

If you want to try after install, reboot your computer 2x, because of the Harmony Extension instead of the ZoneAlarm one being installed.

So far for me it runs nice, im not gonna celebrate yet. Keep you posted.