This article is to help any of you ZoneAlarm users get rid of that annoying “ZoneAlarm Security Options” window that keeps popping up when you start your computer.
A Little Background:
Quite a few updates ago, the good people at Check Point Software Technologies, LTD (formerly Zone Labs) decided to sell out and get all commercial on us cheapskates who continue to mooch off of them by using their free ZoneAlarm Firewall. They decided that a friendly pop-up/reminder (to upgrade to their for-pay Security Suite package) every stinkin’ time we start up our computer would be the way to go. D’oh!
ZoneAlarm Security Options Pop-Up Window
I’ve just been living with it for the last, I don’t know how many months, but finally got fed up. Searched for the solution and found one that worked. Finally stopped being lazy and put together this article to share with you what I’ve learned. Enjoy!
The Non-Solutions:
– There is nothing in the pop-up itself that allows for an opt-out to this. Clicking “Tell Me More” or “No, Thank You” or even “X”-ing out of the window entirely will not work.
– There is nothing in ZoneAlarm’s Control Center settings that allows for an opt-out to this. At least I couldn’t find it.
– There is nothing to disable in Startup processes (in msconfig), and I don’t even want to attempt to touch the registry for something so small.
The Solution:
1 ) Right click on the ZoneAlarm icon in your taskbar (bottom right corner of your desktop) and select “Shutdown ZoneAlarm”
2 ) Go to the ZoneAlarm folder in Windows Explorer (Windows Key + E). In Windows 7, it should be here: C:Program Files (x86)Zone LabsZoneAlarm .
3 ) Right-click on zlclient.exe and select “Run as administrator”. It may ask you for permission. Just agree and allow it to run.
4) Now double-click zlclient.exe to run ZoneAlarm.
5 ) Once it’s done starting up, reboot your computer.
6 ) Walah! The pop-up should now be gone.
Hope this helps y’all! Happy mooching! 😉
Tags: C:Program Files (x86)Zone LabsZoneAlarm, Check Point Software Technologies LTD, Disable the Zone Alarm Security Options Pop-Up Window, free ZoneAlarm Firewall, msconfig, No Thank You, opt-out, pop-up, registry, Run as administrator, Shutdown ZoneAlarm, Startup processes, Tell Me More, zlclient.exe, Zone Labs, ZoneAlarm, ZoneAlarm Control Center, ZoneAlarm Security Options Pop-Up Window, ZoneAlarm Security Options window, ZoneAlarm Security Suite
World Wide Ed 
January 1, 2011 at 8:53 am |
Thanks WWE – This also works in XP
🙂
January 2, 2011 at 3:14 pm |
Awesome! Good to know beanzman! Happy to hear it worked for ya!
February 4, 2011 at 1:17 pm |
WOW thanks a lot !!! this method actually worked !!!
Thanks a lot.
February 7, 2011 at 5:54 pm |
Glad to hear it Hector Barajas!
March 12, 2011 at 4:46 am |
Thank you! This method worked!
March 15, 2011 at 12:23 pm |
Great to hear Eloy! Enjoy!
November 11, 2011 at 2:26 am |
Brilliant, thanks! Hopefully Checkpoint won’t “fix” this in future releases. I know we are moochers, using the free version for now, but that’s no reason for them to aggravate us so much with that pop-up that we switch to another product and NEVER upgrade…
May 8, 2014 at 6:44 am |
1. Open ZONE ALARM Security Suite.
2. Under TOOLS, click PREFERENCES
3. Under the START UP option, uncheck LOAD ZA at startup only.
PROBLEM SOLVED.
June 16, 2018 at 6:04 am |
Are you sure important messages like program blocked prompts are not impacted by doing this?