I'm instaaling my wife's computer.

Windows is on XP + SP2.

Idownloaded ZoneAlarm(free) and Firefox.

The following problems occur:

Firefox : intalls, evrythings seems normal, but I cannot open it up

Zonealarm installed, but won't start.

since the zone alrm installation I get loads of message boxes opening up saying:

Validation failed for C:\windows\system32\zonelabs\vsmon.exe

I tried to uninstall zonealarm, but it will not. a message come up saying it misses a temp file with the procedure.

What now?

ZoneAlarm is fixed. works now. had to reinstall it.

but the problem with firefox remains...

**don't listen to bad advice, and don't give advice that can wreck someone's comp*(post content deleted)

Just re-install over the bad install and it should repair itself.

Go to http://www.3bsoftware.com/ and download the trial version of their registry cleaner. Sounds like you may have a few bugs in your registry, bad installs can do that. Post again if there's further troubles.

cv

It is a bad idea to have 2 firewalls running at the same time. Xp has one built in. So I would suggest you disable Xp firewall and just use zone alarm.

**don't listen to bad advice, and don't give advice that can wreck someone's comp*(post content deleted)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

why would you think thats bad advice, if he is installing his wifes computer then to format the hard drive and start again is not going to wreck anything, often if the initial installation has problems this is the only way to fix it. tell me why do you think formatting the hard drive will wreck a PC, is it going to damage hardware? if was a pc that was being used for some time then data would be lost, so should be backed up first, but the PC will be fine, what are you thinking of. I have formatted and reformatted loads of PC's windows and linux and never once damaged the PC in way. I just wonder why you think you have the right to override good advice with this nonsence, just in who's interests are you acting?

**don't listen to bad advice, and don't give advice that can wreck someone's comp*(post content deleted)

why would you think thats bad advice, if he is installing his wifes computer then to format the hard drive and start again is not going to wreck anything, often if the initial installation has problems this is the only way to fix it. tell me why do you think formatting the hard drive will wreck a PC, is it going to damage hardware? if was a pc that was being used for some time then data would be lost, so should be backed up first, but the PC will be fine, what are you thinking of. I have formatted and reformatted loads of PC's windows and linux and never once damaged the PC in way. I just wonder why you think you have the right to override good advice with this nonsence, just in who's interests are you acting?

may be because for a techy, formatting is the last thing to think about before to discover what's going wrong! (my job)

this is why, formatting is an extrem solution, repair is already 50/50 ...

francois

I see where your coming from, but a repair to brand new installation seems a pointless, a re-install would make more sense at this point, but if its a freshly built PC, why not just format and have done it, no nasty surpises there. my point really was why does CNDVC think it will damage the PC

Thanks guys. After 2 nights of trying to figure it out, I wiped the disk and started all over again. Now everything works except Map magic (Bkk map).

The setup is me as admin and my wife as limited access user. ( one screw up risk is enough) MapMagic works fine when I open it but when my wife tries it, windows give an error message saying that mapmagic wants to exit in a unusal way...I'm trying to get in not exit. it is a minor inconvenience, but if somebody knows how to sort it out, I would be very grateful. The guys at MapMagic are not very helpful.

Thanks guys. After 2 nights of trying to figure it out, I wiped the disk and started all over again. Now everything works except Map magic (Bkk map).

The setup is me as admin and my wife as limited access user. ( one screw up risk is enough) MapMagic works fine when I open it but when my wife tries it, windows give an error message saying that mapmagic  wants to exit in a unusal way...I'm trying to get in not exit.   it is a minor inconvenience, but if somebody knows how to sort it out, I would be very grateful. The guys at MapMagic are not very helpful.

hi'

just copy and paste the shortcut in doc and setting(your account) to doc and settings (all users) and by the way to her account doc and settings(in application data, of course, making the folder first.

as your wife is restricted she cannot access some programs that doesn't ask at install; for you only or for all users ... correct this little bug easily

francois

Phuketsiam is vindicated, how does that make you feel mr over the top knowitall moderator, glad you got it sorted Erwin, next time ignore the idiots unless they delete my post, and listen to the experts

btw, re cndvic advice, microsoft don't reccomend any registor cleaner, and even stopped providing their own, using a trial version would risk wrecking your PC

Thanks Francois, it did the trick. I ran into a similar problem putting Quicken on, remebered your remedy, applied et Voila !

cndvic + phuketsiam + Francois : It all works, but I have the feeling that the system seems to be "unstable". I have a couple of times the message coming up at start up that the system had just recovered from a major event (whatever that means) and checkdisk starts running. Any ideas?

Thanks Francois, it did the trick. I ran into a similar problem putting Quicken on, remebered your remedy, applied et Voila !

cndvic + phuketsiam + Francois : It all works, but I have the feeling that the system seems to be "unstable".  I have a couple of times the message coming up at start up that the system had just recovered from a major event (whatever that means) and checkdisk starts running. Any ideas?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It means you should format your hard drive and start again

Seriously, it seems that on shut down, its not shutting down properly, could be many reasons, when you formatted the HD were there any bad sectors, did you disable the MS firewall before you installed zone alarm. Does this message occur after you have been using particular software? It may be hardware problem, look at your system settings and see if the installed RAM is what it should be damaged memory chips can cause this.

Let us know the results

Cheers

Zonealarm doesn't do anything useful that the built-in firewall for Windows XP doesn't do.

It gives you a lot more information which can either make you nervous (lots of warnings that you are being hacked, when you aren't) or impotent (warnings that someone is trying to hack you, but is being stopped by the firewall). But the same protection is offered.

Personally, I'd dump it.

I've got mixed feelings, but make sure you only run one, not both.

"Zonealarm doesn't do anything useful that the built-in firewall for Windows XP doesn't do."

Nah, just does it better.

I would dump XP and use 98se or w2k.

As to reg cleaning. A crapshoot.

I use OnTrack Fixit 4. So far, so good.