Windows XP telling me odd things...

So toady when I turned on my computer everything loads as it always does (msn messenger, NOD32, audio drivers etc...) when windows suddenly told me that my "Zonealarm AV" was turned off. This is weird because I stopped using the Zonealarm security suite about 2 years ago, and I uninstalled long ago. So now theres a little shield with an "X" on it tell me to turn it on even though its not even on my computer...anyone know how to solve this? Or why its doing this?

 

That's Windows for you.

Did you delete ZoneAlarm via Add/Remove programs or via the ZoneAlarm uninstaller?

Run a registry cleaner such as CCleaner, which is downloadable for free. That will get rid of any residual entries that are causing confusion with WinXP.

 

I'm running Windows XP Home edition with SP2, and I checked and its not there so I'm sure I uninstalled it. I'll run CCleaner now.

 

IMHO: Probably an Auto update that found an old link in your registry file. I have had lot of weird things involving removed items after downloading Updates and installing them . btw I DO NOT have it running all the time, I turn it off, check weekly for new M$ junk

Should be some free registry cleaners if you look @ filehippo, PCmag or CNET sites. If you understand how they work , can fix problems yourself after identified (RegEdit). DO NOT mess up registry if unsure!
CCleaner may or may not fix it, probably need RegistryBooster from tenebril.

 

I find Registry Doctor works better than CCleaner

 

well i recommend you used ccleaner to clean some junk registry... i think you have not really uninstalled it before... this happened to me before when i just deleted the program files of a certain application manually and forgot to clean the registry (i did this to some notoriosly hard to uninstall program)...

btw, you haven't reformat for two years? that's something...

 

Funny, I find Registry Mechanic better than Registry Doctor and CCleaner.

 

I use both registry mechanic & ccleaner - not that it matters.

Anyways, even if you uninstall it, it still leaves registry keys, especially if you go with the add/remove programs method that most of us do. If you are comfortable with it, you probably need to manually delete the registry keys from your system - assuming that ccleaner does not find it. There are several guides that discuss this on the web. Here is one:
http://antionline.com/archive/index.php/t-218508.html

Good Luck,
Amber

 

Funny, I find using my brain and regedit / browse / search work better than all of them, and I trust it a lot more
I figure if you are going to play with the registry you might as well learn the ins and outs of it.

 

agreed. registry is one of the "untouchables" in xp. it can transform itself to a "BOMB" that will blow your computer! betta left it in peace if you don't know how to handle it!

 

If I had the time I would go through the registry, but gosh its like a jungle in regedit. I'd spend ages going through it and whatnot.

 

aha, yea I know.
I format my desktop PC once every 2 months at the most, and I'm thinkin about restoring my laptop soon!