I have been using the free Zone Alarm Ver. 2.6 for several months now and have found it to be very dependable firewall protection.
I figured it was time to give the newer free version 3.1. a spin.
System specs,
Via 133a chipset.
1.2g Athlon Tbird
384mg ram
WinXP Home
According to the installation instructions at the Zone Alarm site, I shut down Zone Alarm and installed it right over the top of the old version. When prompted as to weather I wanted to keep my old settings I chose yes.
My first impression of the new interface is that it is not quite as user friendly as the old version. It seemed to me that the information that used to be available with one click was now hidden behind multiple tabs, such as what programs are being allowed access. After a short while though I was able to get acquainted with the new interface and find where all the old information was.
Unfortunately, I noticed an immediate drag on my system performance. Almost as if I had a large program running in the background.
I also had shut down problems with the new version installed. When I shut down my computer it would start to shut down and freeze showing only the Desktop minus Icons, Start Menu or Task Bar.
I thought perhaps I should have done a clean install without saving my previous settings.
So I uninstalled and upon reinstall when prompted that a previous version was detected did I want to keep settings or overwrite I chose overwrite.
I still had the same problems, so out with the new and in with the old. I uninstalled the newer Version 3.1 and went back to Version 2.6 and everything is ok. System performance is back where it should be and no shutdown trouble.
I had hoped to do a more comprehensive review of the new version. Unfortunately I?m disappointed with my initial results on this system.
If you are using the new version I would be interested in hearing how it performs and if you like or dislike the new user interface.
Thanks,
pat
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