Windows Vista is blocking stuff!

I had to format my computer and ever since it's been acting strangely. I thought I had messed it up by leaving it in the car a very hot day, but all the problems seem software related.

I disabled UAC or AUC, whatever it's called. And I disabled Windows' Firewall and I'm using Zone Alarm instead. But all the programs that were running fine before, have some sort of problem. For instance, a text editor called PSPad crashes with a copy/paste error; a CD-ROM dictionary that was activated by leaving the CD in the drive and running it, is now throwing a "license data" problem, which is related to certain firewalls (not the case here); another software is throwing another memory error which is very rare according to he developers.

So I think Windows is blocking certain things. This is not the first time I've formatted my computer but this is the first time these kind of problems (registry problems?) are occurring so often.

Can somebody help me figure out how to disable any other stupid Vista security measure that might be crippling my computer?

 

Since your problems started happening after you formatted, I'd say you might be missing some drivers or HP software that's needed for your laptop.

 

I don't think it's vista security hindering you either but going to Control Panel > Security Center you can disable all security. Then you'd have to make sure there was nothing in scheduled tasks and the local system policy turning on anything extra.

 

Did these problems occur before you cooked your computer?

ZoneAlarm is more likely to cause issues than the Windows Firewall. It has been known to cut off all network access under Windows XP after applying a certain update.

Did you install the programs while UAC was running? Disabling UAC will cause all programs to install under the XP model of "All users are admins" as opposed to creating necessary virtual directories that users can access. This essentially means that if your account doesn't have read/write access everywhere, some programs will be unable to store their data, and will throw out read/write errors. I suggest formatting and reinstalling Windows, and then reinstalling your programs with UAC turned on.

 

Thank you all, it seems that the problem was the HP recovery CDs. I did a clean installation and so far there are no weird problems. They were completely new errors to me. Anyway, I'll follow Relativity's advice. Thanks.

 

How about relying on the security features of vista? because that's what it's designed for. and forget about ZoneAlarm.

A clean installed vista with no tweakings works perfect. if not, get your systems drivers. if it doesn't work perfect by then, contact your manufacturer and tell him, how he created some really crappy system.