ZoneAlarm Extreme Security is probably the strongest and most comprehensive security suite available to protect all areas of your online life, but we can’t help feel that it’s totally over the top. Sure the firewall is tough, the layered protection prevents malware installation and spam protection is comprehensive, but there’s just so much more to this suite that is not necessary for most users - parental controls, online backup, tune-up tools, to name a few. The software also had a big impact on our test system’s performance (albeit less than its predecessor), and Windows boot time was drastically lengthened. Furthermore, while it seems Check Point is finally trying to support Vista x64, it is only in 32-bit compatibility-mode. Security programs of this level running on a 64-bit operating system must be 64-bit application themselves rather than a half-arsed port. It’s a shame ZoneAlarm has degraded from a once good and easy to use personal firewall to a slow memory hog that’s overly complicated and packed to the gills with attention-grabbing but largely unnecessary features.



Link: IT Reviewed