I recently discovered that my free copy of ZoneAlarm Pro (I'll explain later) was causing process problems on my pc. For one, it randomly 'hangs' certain processes, such as Firefox and uTorrent, rendering such programs unusable. Worse still, it prevents the processes from closing even through Windows Task Manager's Processes tab. As a result, even when I try to restart my system, I am unable to do so; Windows is not able to end these processes and thus won't shutdown. If that ain't bad enough, whenever I put my pc on standby, the monitor will enter power-saving mode but the cpu itself wouldn't power down. After a couple of minutes, my pc would blue-screen and restart itself.
Weird.
I never expected ZoneAlarm to be the culprit. Initially, I actually blamed other programs, such as Videora and a Firefox plug-in which I both installed not long ago. This problem is actually a known one. A probable solution involving a revert to the firewall's factory defaults was believed to be able to solve this pesky issue. As anticipated, the proposed 'solution' didn't work out for me.
My copy of ZoneAlarm Pro was freely available for download during CheckPoint's 15th Anniversary. I got the download link from PC Mag's site. So effectively, I got US$39.95 worth of software for free. I wonder if I'm applicable for a full refund now.
Since ZoneAlarm Pro's uninstall, I have never seen a hung process that prevented a shutdown. Hopefully this problem wouldn't repeat itself. However, my experience with my problem-plauged pc tells me otherwise.
Screw this crap,
T'ang
Friday, February 6
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