I have been running avast free and ZApro for years very happily. Now I cannot update ZA because the two are not compatible? ZA support says nothing helpful but try installing with avast turned off. After disabling shields there are still processes running that will not give me access to suspend. But I think that won’t help anyway. ZA v 9 series worked fine. 10 series will not attempt to install w/ avast on the system. >:( ZApro does not do antivirus. Are we all aware of this situation? I’d appreciate someone shedding light on this or at least explain why if it cannot be done.
ZA v 9 series worked fine. 10 series will not attempt to install w/ avast on the systemZA-10...is that not a beta ?
No There’s bee a few v 10’s now. Latest is 10 250 000 but the trouble began with the very first of the 10 series.
I’m going to comment little bit off topic but with intention of helping out … If I may suggest a decent replacement for ZA’s firewall, that would be Privacyware Personal Firewall. Light on the system, extremely efficient HIPS, ranks among the highest on the matousec’s firewall+hips testing site and the most important thing … works absolutely flawless with Avast 6 free. Cheers
ZA 10 Free works great. 
ZoneAlarm 10 Free Firewall http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/1025_za/zaSetup_101_056_000.exe
This has been covered time and time and again. Zone Alarm is not the best choice to use with avast.
The three most recommended to use with avast are;
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Firewall/Privatefirewall.shtml
http://www.filehippo.com/download_outpost_firewall/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Firewall/Online-Armor-Free.shtml
If you want something that’s “set it and forget it” Private Firewall.
ZoneAlarm has been known to cause and/or create conflicts with avast.
There is no ZA10 listed at filehippo?
http://filehippo.com/download_zonealarm_free/
ZoneAlarm® Free Firewall Release History
http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/znalm/zaReleaseHistory.html
MajorGeeks ZoneAlarm Free 10.1.056.000 :
http://www.majorgeeks.com/ZoneAlarm_Free_d388.html
Of course having the link doesn’t mean it solves the problem of this topic.
I am running ZApro, not ZA free. I’ve been running ZA far longer than Avast and they’ve been perfectly compatible til now. If ZA free works, perhaps I should switch, as I don’t want an old application running. But if ZA wants to alienate customers to this point, I will check out the other alternatives. The reason I want to keep avast is the boot scan. This seems to be a rare option though I don’t know why. It is a very efficient way to scan. My system is ancient in disc life terms but it is running very well. I hope it lasts til Windows 8. I’d still like to know exactly what the compatibility issue is, but that’s just curiosity. Thanks for all the help.
If I were you, I would delete firewall rules, reboot and re-create them anew.
Adding exclusions for ZA in Avast, and adding the firewall rules for avastsvc.exe, avastui.exe and avast.setup (at least) would be my second step (using “*” where necessary).
That seems to be a lot of trouble. With Online Armor Free all you need to do for exclusions is to “click” the program you want to add to the exclusions.
That is NOT a lot of trouble for someone like the OP, who has been using the same firewall for years, he likes it and he’d rather not get rid of it if he can avoid that action.
It takes 5 minutes or less. If he changes to other firewall, he needs to uninstall, run specific removal utilities, install the new firewall, and learn how to use it.
I’m not sure I know how to do all those exclusions but I can figure it out and check the documentation, but the problem is: Attempting to install the updated version of ZA, the first thing I see is a message telling me that “ZA CANNOT be installed due to Avast being present. The system does not meet requirements.” ZA tech support seemed not to know this and I had to send a screenshot. Then I got no further info about it except for the suggestion to try to install with avast turned off-did not work. Also recommended uninstalling avast then reinstalling after ZA, but I’m certainly not doing that everytime a new version comes out. For all I know, that won’t even work once the two are running. Seems like my time with ZA is at it’s end and they don’t really care too much. I have no idea how much problem there has been 'tween the two, but my guess is they both try to scan web pages at the same time. ;D
Please see reply #5. Since ZA obviously created a conflict with avast I strongly urge to switch your firewall to one of the above mentioned in my reply. Why mess with the headaches?
You won’t see many (if any)of us on this forum using ZoneAlarm.
If you decide to try another Firewall…I been using PC Tools Firewall 7 free on XP with Avast 6, No Exclusions, very light, Did great on tests, set it and forget it…download at PC Tools dot com.
Just a suggestion if things don’t work out with Zonealarm…
Just to be clear, I don’t think Avast has anything to do with that message / condition to install ZA. Either you were confused by some unknown message (and that’s why they request from you to send them a screenshot) or the message comes from ZA itself.
In any case, even without adding the mutual exclusions / exceptions to ZA and Avast, you should be able to delete your firewall rules relatively easily and reboot, just to try (that is, if you still have ZA installed).
Working with ZoneAlarm is like flogging a dead horse. Get rid of it and download a firewall that plays well with avast. ???
The ones I listed play well with avast.
Way to go. Drop ZA.