Updates

Zone Alarm free basic firewall
Watch for Zone Alarm to pop-up asking you to upgrade to the paid version. If you are happy with the basic free version, click No Thanks.

If you are looking to download the Zone Alarm free firewall fresh or for the first time, click on this link, download and run this file. It will ask whether you want to download the version for Vista or XP. Choose and then choose Download Only and browse to where you want to save it. Now you will have a copy of the full free version to install.

The latest version is 7.0.362.00


Windows Update
There are some new security updates. Download and install them and enjoy continued security.

Adobe Flash Player
There is an update for this as well. If you use another browser besides IE, like Firefox, make sure to go to the Adobe site, in Firefox, as well as in IE (even if you don't use IE, or don't use it very often) and update Flash for all your browsers. And, in IE, make sure to UNcheck the Google Toolbar download (as it is something that helps to slow down your browsing and it is semi-spyware).


Running these updates helps to keep your computer more secure. Old versions of browser plug-ins (like Flash, Java, Quicktime and Real Player), and media programs (Windows Media Player, WinAmp, etc) become security risks that allow viruses and such to activate on your computer. By updating these programs, you make it harder for viruses and such to mess up your computer.

Flash Security fix from Windows Update Won't Install

Problem: you can get and install all the security updates for Windows except for the Security fix for Flash Player.

This is due to the Flash Player plugin for IE being out of date. If you use Firefox all the time, you will probably have the Flash Player up to date for it, so you may have had trouble trying to figure this one out.

Solution: Open Internet Explorer, go to the Flash Player site and install the latest version. You might have to restart the computer after this to make the little yellow shield go away.

Laptops, Firewalls and Windows Update

I recently encountered this issue. Windows Update stopped working properly on an Acer laptop. If I manually ran the update, it would loop at some point and I could not get the updates. I found out that the Generic Host now needed to be completely trusted by the firewall. This was not the case a while ago.

It may have been caused by something in the Zone Alarm firewall due to the major update (although the program settings were not changed), or something in a recent Windows Update itself.

To fix this issue if you are using Zone Alarm: open the program, go to the Program Control, find Generic Host... and make sure it is now allowed in all 4 columns. You should be able to run Windows Update now.