BleepingComputer.com: getting rid of zonealarm

I have windows xp and I just got kaspersky 2009 and every time I try to get on to firefox it crashes right away when I try to open internet explorer it doesn't do anything I have been up all night trying to figure this out. Please someone, anyone help! Goodnight.

EDIT: From a second topic

I have xp service pack 3 I tried using zonealarm months ago didn't like it and uninstalled it I purchased kaspersky 2010 and during install the security center warning down in taskbar says that zonealarm is turned off as a firewall ( which i uninstalled, so I don't understand why it's even listed there. ) and then I got a bsod. I got kaspersky installed successfully second time but there is obviously leftovers from zone alarm. Also if I don't disable kis extension url advisor in firefox just as firefox opens firefox crashes. Can't help but think all this is linked to zonealarm left overs still on computer. I tried to follow someone elses guide to manually uninstalling all remnants of ZA and obviously it didn't work. Any thoughts.

Hi! maybe you have Windows defender active or another firewall that wasn't uninstalled. Sincerely I had kaspersky and switched to something else, as it wasn't so stable on my PC.
Jonathan

Step-by-Step Installation Guide of Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
KIS2009 User Guide

Another thought, before you installed Kaspersky 2009 what other security software were you using? Did you uninstall it?

thanks tork I actually downloaded 2010 from the kaspersky site and entered in my key code which was what i was told I could do by kaspersky. It worked fine actually what I finally figured out is in the three second window I had while firefox would stay open ( there was a pop-up box showing addition of kaspersky url advisor to firefox plug-ins.) I clicked on disable then uninstall and firefox stayed open don't know why that was the problem seeing as it is a valid plug-in of kaspersky installation. I am actually now trying to figure out if I add it back on now if it will work but I can't figure out how to re-install it, I tried doing custom install on kis 2010 but didn't see the plug-in listed there.

If you are having trouble updating or installing the Zone Alarm firewall, with error messages such as "Validation failed for..." any number of dlls, or that the True Vector Monitor can't shut down, etc., here is the solution. If you were already using Zone Alarm, uninstall it. There's a mess of files and folders you must now delete. ZoneLabs gives lengthy instructions on how to do that, but ZFix does it automatically. Download and unzip the CMD file zfix.zip, then run it. It'll clean all traces of any old installation from your system, and you can now run a fresh installation with no problem.
http://www.gwtechonline.com/dnld_files/zfix.zip

see post #14 Firefox Plugins

The only way ZA is not uninstalled cleanly if people use Add/Remove programs utility.
And worse than that if Add/Remove is used while ZA is running (vsmon is a driver, as is vsdatant, very deep in the system, that's why ZA is soooo good).

Under program files is the ZA uninstaller. It uninstalls pretty clean in versions prior to 7, but still might require few manual removals.
In most recent versions (7,8) the uninstaller uses a utility called cpes_clean.exe (sits in %ProgramFiles%\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\) which cleans it all out so another excellent utility such as Kaspersky or Outpost or PCTools firewall can install cleanly and not be bothered by traces.

Incidentally the newest uninstaller works great with versions 6 and up.
Active links on the new ZA forums, for instance, here
http://forums.zonealarm.com/showthread.php?t=70034

The moral of my rambling is simple. NEVER, EVER use Add/Remove or attempt to kill the services of a firewall without FIRST READING the MANUFACTURER's INSTRUCTIONS as to HOW to UNINSTALL. I believe this is actually true of ALL applications. The trashy ones have an uninstaller in your internet\temp directory which of course gets deleted if you clean your system often, crummy ones don't provide an uninstaller. GOOD ones do. That's the ones to buy and use. The end.

thank you I will try the removal tool