Issue With Bitdefender Av 2009 Ad Zonealarm

Several users have reported the extreme slowdown of windows bootup when both BD av 2009 and Zonealarm free firewall are present at startup. I have not yet seen anyone reporting a resolution of this conflict. Running Windows XP sp2, I add myself to the list of users with 30 - 60 minutes (or more) of bootup time following install of BD av 2009.

After a clean reinstall of Windows, a bare minimum of programs installed, and with no other protective programs yet loaded, I encountered the slow windows startup as soon as I installed Zonealarm .

If I remove Zonalarm, and retain BD av, the problem goes away. If I remove BD av, and retain Zonealarm, the problem goes away. Furthermore, if I configure Zonealarm to not initailize at startup, and then activate it after the desktop loads, the problem does not appear.

So I ask:

- is this how I must initialize the computer everytime I boot or reboot?

- is there any chance ever of BD fixing the av 2009 glitch, rather than telling people not to install Zonealarm?

- has this conflict been resolved in av 2010?

Hoping for feedback on this matter,

Stuart

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bitbach

I'm not sure why there is no response to this query. Also, I emailed Bitdefender support team with id # 200908261002881c, and the promised 48 hour response time has come and gone. If there is no help offered, I will jump ship rather than further invest in a program with such nonresponsive support. If I've missed something about getting some attention for a problem involving serious operating system disruption, please inform me.

Thank you,

Stuart

Alex Stanciu

Hello bitbach,

For the moment we are testing this issue and a resolution will be released as soon as possible. You should try performing the bellow workaround, which will imply adding to the exceptions from scanning, the path were Zone Alarm is installed . Here is what you have to do :

1. Open BitDefender and click on Switch to Advanced View.

2. Click on Antivirus then choose the Exclusions tab .

3. Make sure that the option "Exceptions are enabled" is checked then click on the Add button from the right(it is represented by a plus "+" ).

4. The Exclusion Wizard window will appear . At steps 1 choose the option "Do not scan file or folder paths" and hit Next.

5. At steps 2 click on the Browse button and browse and add the following locations:

C:\Program Files\zone labs\

C:\WINDOWS\system32\vsdatant.sys

then click on Ok. After that click on Next .

6. At steps 3 leave the options as they are and hit Next.

7. At steps 4 leave the option "Select this if you want the scanning task to be started when you click finish" unchecked and then click on Finnish .

8 . Now you can reboot your system and look if there are any improvements .

Thank you .

bitbach

Hello bitbach,

For the moment we are testing this issue and a resolution will be released as soon as possible. You should try performing the bellow workaround, which will imply adding to the exceptions from scanning, the path were Zone Alarm is installed . Here is what you have to do :

1. Open BitDefender and click on Switch to Advanced View.

2. Click on Antivirus then choose the Exclusions tab .

3. Make sure that the option "Exceptions are enabled" is checked then click on the Add button from the right(it is represented by a plus "+" ).

4. The Exclusion Wizard window will appear . At steps 1 choose the option "Do not scan file or folder paths" and hit Next.

5. At steps 2 click on the Browse button and browse and add the following locations:

C:\Program Files\zone labs\

C:\WINDOWS\system32\vsdatant.sys

then click on Ok. After that click on Next .

6. At steps 3 leave the options as they are and hit Next.

7. At steps 4 leave the option "Select this if you want the scanning task to be started when you click finish" unchecked and then click on Finnish .

8 . Now you can reboot your system and look if there are any improvements .

Thank you .

Dear Alex,

I appreciate the suggestion, but unfortunately it did not work. Still have the same problem. My work around is to choose the preference in Zonealarm to not be active upon startup, and engage it after the bootup is complete. Still hoping you find a way to clean up Bitdefender to avoid conflicts as common as this one.

Stuart

bitbach

With time passing here, and the lack of a focused plan to resolve what must be a situation affecting many people, I regretfully need to move on and choose a more compatible anti virus program. It is a major contradiction that a program whose major purpose is protection, itself leads to malfunction and corruption of the computer it is servicing.

Bugs happen, and they happen after release of a product. That is understandable, and in the world of Windows to be expected. But from my own experience, and perusing the many still unresolved problems reported in this forum, I feel that I have bought into a beta experiment.

Until V.10, the program was, with a little adjustment, doing a fine job. It effectively dealt with several viruses that came my way. So it is with mixed feelings that I will discontinue use of your program at this point. If in the future the many conflicts with other software are resolved, I would consider Bitdefender again. For now I would like assistance in obtaining a refund for the balance of my subscription.

Sincerely,

Stuart