avast background service not working

I open the GUI and it says that no protection modules are active. I have repaired and reinstalled but it didn’t seem to fix the problem. I’m running the latest version of Avast on Windows 10 along with ZoneAlarm Free Firewall and I’m getting the same problem on two different computers. I have found no reported conflict on the Internet between the two but I though it was worth mentioning.

Pls remove ZoneAlarm Free Firewall and try again repair.
Repair Avast:

  1. Control Panel → Add/Remove programs → Avast
  2. Click on ‘Repair’.
  3. Follow instructions.
  4. Reboot.

No clue on how you have searched, but that they conflict is mentioned many times.

ZoneAlarm hasn’t been just a firewall for a long time.
Even when you choose only to install the firewall part, things from the av are also installed.

https://blog.kaspersky.com/multiple-antivirus-programs-bad-idea/2670/

Ok, I’ve managed to reinstall the antivirus without having to uninstall the firewall, but now the firewall doesn’t seem to be working, so that is most likely the problem here.
Since the ZoneAlarm Firewall + Avast Free combo doesn’t seem to be working anymore, is there something you can suggest? Maybe Comodo Free Firewall or a different antivirus? Or maybe some setting I should change or some exception I have to add to make them work together again? I would really prefer to avoid changing if possible.

I googled “zonealarm firewall avast conflict” and restricted the results to the last year, since I figured that any compatibility issue would’ve come up being the both of them between the most popular security suites, and that any past issue would’ve been patched by now.

There is nothing to patch.
You simply can not drive with two cars on the exact same piece of road at the exact time.

As for a firewall, get and use a hardware one.

Windows 10 has it’s own built in firewall. No need to install anything else.
Get rid of ZoneAlarm.