# Zone alarm and Vista



## Pilgrim (Mar 10, 2008)

Every time I try to install ZA's Free firewall I get the infamous Windows Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) and it won't go away unless I uninstall it. Anyone dealt with this and have any suggestions? I've gotten rid of the preloaded McAfee my new laptop had and turn off the Vista firewall and Windows defender when installing Zone Alarm. It installs, then crashes, reboots and crashes again until I reboot in safe mode and uninstall Zone Alarm.


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## Herald (Mar 10, 2008)

Zone Alarm is not compatible with Vista.


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## Pilgrim (Mar 10, 2008)

North Jersey Baptist said:


> Zone Alarm is not compatible with Vista.



It wasn't at first but it is compatible now as can plainly be seen here. However, they just don't seem to play well together. But I guess if I can't eventually get it to work then whether it is "compatible" or not won't really matter.


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## Pilgrim (Mar 10, 2008)

I see that ZA isn't considered to be that good anymore (esp. the free version) anyway. Often these companies will develop a good solution and then spend tons on marketing, rest on the accomplishments of the past and get surpassed after a few years.


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## greenbaggins (Mar 10, 2008)

Why use ZA when Vista has its own very good firewall?


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## Pilgrim (Mar 10, 2008)

greenbaggins said:


> Why use ZA when Vista has its own very good firewall?



The Vista firewall by all accounts is much improved over the XP firewall. Apparently it is pretty good at inbound protection but its outbound filtering is a disaster because it is disabled by default and practically impossible to configure, as described here, here and here. 

The majority of users no doubt heard that the firewall was sufficient and haven't bothered to check into it for themselves. 

I downloaded Comodo, which seems to be working fine so far.


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## Pilgrim (Mar 14, 2008)

My computer keeps blue screening. Apparently this is the problem. I think I'll try to get the hotfix since I consider the computer going into recovery mode 2-3 times in less than a week to meet the definition of me being "severely affected" by the problem.


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## danmpem (Mar 14, 2008)

What is the BSOD code? It will be something like:
0x12345678, with an emphasis on the "0x".


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## Pilgrim (Mar 14, 2008)

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Technical information: 

*** Stop: 0X000000D1 (0X00000078, 0X00000002, 0X00000000, 0X8962F1F2)
***fwpkclnt.sys Address 8962F1F2 base at 8962B000, Datestamp 4549b2f6

At first it was rebooting so quickly that I couldn't get all the numbers down. But I changed the settings so that it no longer automatically restarts when it blue screens. Some of the numbers are different each time, but it always has the same message at the top along with fwpkclnt.sys


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## danmpem (Mar 14, 2008)

Pilgrim said:


> DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
> 
> Technical information:
> 
> ...



If there are different messages each time, then go ahead and post each of them. Don't worry if there are quite a few. If you have the time, then I have the time.


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## danmpem (Mar 14, 2008)

Check here, here, and here.


And I have no idea if this one helps, but this is what I got when I googled the very first error code. Just pay attention to the first "0x" code you get on the BSOD, and google for that. Ignore the ones that come after.


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## Pilgrim (Mar 14, 2008)

danmpem said:


> Check here, here, and here.
> 
> 
> And I have no idea if this one helps, but this is what I got when I googled the very first error code. Just pay attention to the first "0x" code you get on the BSOD, and google for that. Ignore the ones that come after.



Thanks, I had already seen all of those. I found this and similar pages. This is a fix that will be included in Service Pack 1 which apparently will be released soon. I just got the hotfix from MS and will download it later.


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