ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall

Antivirus software are either expensive or they do not work properly. There are also many antivirus programs which are free, but even though they do not work as they should, we only install them to feel safe, knowing that we have some form of protection against viruses and other malware. If this is the case, you can try using ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall. It is as good as other advanced and expensive software and you can deduce from its name that you will not have to pay for it. There are no hidden restrictions, so you can make use of its full potential.

The setup kit is 5 and a half Mb large. Although it can be downloaded fast, you will have to wait an extra minute or two, while the program is being installed on your computer. If you have another antivirus program installed, you will want to disable or uninstall it to avoid any conflicts. Fortunately, this issue can be solved from ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall's interface.

The software features an antivirus, a firewall and an identity and data protection feature. You will find three main options on its home screen, which will take you to the same features. In other words, it does not matter if you click the Antivirus, Firewall or the Identity and data protection, on the home page, because you will find their options on the same window, under different tabs. The home screen serves as an overview of your protection measures. It will let you know if the aforementioned features are working correctly or not.

An on/off button can be found under each tab, so you can activate or deactivate individual features with one click. Besides this common option, you will find other ones for enabling or disabling specific functions, fixing certain issues and more. If ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall conflicts with other similar programs on your computer, you will find a notification in the Antivirus section, where you can click a button to solve it. You will also find options for performing a quick or full scan or a full scan with archive files. The software can be updated and scheduled for routine scans in the same section.

The firewall section contains two main elements: the firewall itself and an application control feature which blocks dangerous behaviors and unauthorized Internet transmissions. Their severity can be adjusted separately with sliders and you can also access advanced settings for each of them. The Identity and data section is similar to the Firewall. The web identity protection will detect and prevent access to phishing and spyware sites and the identity protection will safeguard your personal information with monitors and alerts. You will also find an online backup feature in this section, which can be used to archive and store up to 5 Gb of data on a secure server.

You can access the software's logs, preferences menu, scheduled tasks and more, by clicking the Tools option, in the window's upper left corner and choosing an item from the context menu. You can also activate a game mode in this menu. We all know how a firewall reacts when we try to play an online game: it will ask us if we want to allow the game to connect to the Internet. In some cases, we have to set up a firewall exception manually. ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall can be set to allow or deny a game's access to the Internet automatically. You just need to select one of these options on a separate window and click a button, in its lower right corner, to activate this mode. You can also tick an option to turn off the web security feature while in game mode.