Here is a good tip for starting up ZoneAlarm faster. As you may or may not know, Vsmon.exe is the very heart of ZoneAlarm, it loads with ZoneAlarm and acctually does all of the protection, the rest is just a user interface. After you are finished configuring ZoneAlarm, you can run the Vsmon security engine without ZoneAlarm, allowing for faster startups. I did this with ZoneAlarm Pro v3.7.159, but it should work will all versions of ZoneAlarm beyond 3. I also did this under Windows98, so some registry keys or directories could be different.
1) In ZoneAlarm preferences, uncheck "load ZoneAlarm at startup". Then, shutdown ZoneAlarm.
2) Press "Start" > "Run..." and type in "regedit". This will load up registry editor. Be careful what you edit here.
3) Go to HEKY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft� 92;Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
4) At this point, you should see string values, such as LoadPowerProfile and AchedulingAgent on the right. If you don't see those, you probably are not in the right place...
5) Right click on the empty space and select "New" > "String Value".
6) Call the string value "TrueVector" (no quotes).
7) Right click on "TrueVector" and select "Modify".
8) Under value data, type in
"C:\windows\system\zonelabs\vs mon.exe - service" (no quotes). The directory might be different though, it might be
"c:\winnt" instead of "c:\windows". That depends on what OS you have.
9) Now you are done! Now you will be protected and can choose when you want to load the User Interface.
Soon, I will be posting up a web site that will explain ZoneAlarm Pro simply, as well as some other terms. This will help people who are not good with computers. I don't blame anyone who doesn't know what "ActiveX" is or what a "port" is, but they do not deserve any less security than I. Once I post it up, I will give the URL here and an e-mail address so people can suggest/complain. If it helps just one person, then my mission is complete.
Sygate and ZoneLabs know what they are doing when it comes to firewalls. Steve Gibson is coming out with his own...someday.