Can't Install Comodo Firewall

Comodo Internet Security - CIS Install / Setup / Configuration Help - CIS
1

I’ve just recently uninstalled ZoneAlarm Firewall as I heard that Comodo takes up less resources and is generally a much better firewall, so I thought I’d give it a shot. The problem is, when trying to install it, I keep getting the following error message, as shown in the screenshot below:

http://i48.tinypic.com/ws6wap.jpg

I’d appreciate any help with this, as I’m trying to install the firewall, thank you.

2

Bump, still looking for a fix, as I’m currently without a Firewall and don’t really want to go back to ZoneAlarm.

3

Try this ZA clean up tool, reboot and then try again.

Does that help?

4

I downloaded & ran the tool, but it didn’t do anything whatsoever. It’s as if it didn’t even run.

I tried it a few more times and same thing happens… Nothing.

5

You can try reinstalling ZoneAlarm and then uninstalling it using Revo Uninstaller:

This is a free software.

Essentially I’d recommend following most of the steps here:
https://forums.comodo.com/install-setup-configuration-help-cis/how-to-upgrade-from-v3-to-v4-t58620.0.html
only for removing ZoneAlarm instead of an earlier version of Comodo.

Please let us know what you’ve tried and if it worked. Thanks.

6

These are the steps recomended from zonealarm to uninstall completely the product.

01.) Restart your computer
02.) When you see the screen go black and it starts booting back up keep
tapping the “F8” key (at the top of your keyboard)
03.) This should bring up a menu. Choose Safe Mode off the menu by
using the arrow keys on the keyboard to highlight Safe Mode and press
Enter
04.) If you get a message asking to go to Safe Mode, choose Yes. If you
get a help and support window, close this.
05.) Once you are at the desktop, Click Start, Computer
06.) Click Tools, Folder Options, View Tab

NOTE: If you cannot see the menu bar with the Tools menu on it, you have
to press the Alt-key on the keyboard and the menu bar should then be
visible.

07.) Place a dot next to “Show Hidden Files and Folders”
08.) Remove the check from “Hide Protected Operating System Files
(Recommended)”
09.) Choose Yes to the warning
10.) Click OK
11.) Double click C:

Note: In the future steps if you do not see any files or folders, please click
the “Show Files” link to view them.

12.) Double Click the Program Files Folder
13.) Right Click the Zone Labs Folder, click Delete, and choose Yes

NOTE: If you cannot delete the entire folder, please open the Zone Labs -

ZoneAlarm folder and delete out as many of the files listed here as
possible.

14.) Close this window
15.) Click Start, Computer
16.) Double Click C:
17.) Double Click the Windows Folder
18.) Right Click the Internet Logs Folder, click Delete, and choose Yes
19.) Double Click the System32 Folder
20.) Right Click the Zone Labs Folder, click Delete, and choose Yes

NOTE: If you cannot delete the entire folder, please open the Zone Labs
folder and delete out as many of the files listed here as possible.

21.) Locate and delete the following files in the System32 folder if they are
present:

  • vsconfig.xml
  • vsxml.dll
  • vsregexp.dll
  • vsdata.dll
  • vsdata95.vxd
  • vsdatant.sys
  • vsmonapi.dll
  • vspubapi.dll
  • vsinit.dll
  • vsutil.dll
  • vswmi.dll
  • zlcommdb.dll
  • zlcomm.dll
  • zpeng24.dll

22.) Clear your Temp Directory per the instructions below.

  • Go to Start → Run
  • Type %temp% and click OK
  • Select all of these files and delete them

23.) Clear the Prefetch folder per the instructions below.

  • Go to Start → Run
  • Type Prefetch and click OK
  • Select all of these files and delete them

NOTE: If you do not have the Run option on the Start menu, you can press
and hold the Windows logo key and tap the letter R .

24.) Remove the necessary registry entries:

*Important Advisory: Deleting registry entries incorrectly may cause
serious problems to your operating system, which may necessitate the
need to reinstall it. Please make sure you are able to perform these
deletions correctly before you decide to edit the entries. If you are not
sure, you should seek help from someone who is familiar with editing the
registry.

For information about how to edit the registry in Windows, from your
desktop, click Start → Run → and type regedit. Click on Help → Help
Topics. Under the Contents tab, click Change Keys and Values (this may
be found under the How to… section).

Also, you should always make a backup of the registry before editing it.
You can find this in the same section of the Help files.

To remove the needed registry entries, go to Start → Run and type in
regedit. Choose OK, and use the folders on the left side of the Registry
Editor window to navigate to the specified directories below. Note that you
will remove the entire folder specified (eg. Zone Labs, vsmon, vsdatant):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Zone Labs
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\vsmon
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\vsdatant

25.) Close this window, then empty your recycle bin.
26.) Restart the computer.
27.) Try to install the latest version again.

7

The steps you recommend secondly seem to be for upgrading from v3 to v4 of Comodo. I didn’t bother trying it as I’ve never had Comodo installed in the past, so I don’t see the point. I had a look through the steps anyway, and there’s nothing there that seems necessary, considering I’ve never had Comodo installed in the past.

These are the steps recomended from zonealarm to uninstall completely the product.

01.) Restart your computer
02.) When you see the screen go black and it starts booting back up keep
tapping the “F8” key (at the top of your keyboard)
03.) This should bring up a menu. Choose Safe Mode off the menu by
using the arrow keys on the keyboard to highlight Safe Mode and press
Enter
04.) If you get a message asking to go to Safe Mode, choose Yes. If you
get a help and support window, close this.
05.) Once you are at the desktop, Click Start, Computer
06.) Click Tools, Folder Options, View Tab

NOTE: If you cannot see the menu bar with the Tools menu on it, you have
to press the Alt-key on the keyboard and the menu bar should then be
visible.

07.) Place a dot next to “Show Hidden Files and Folders”
08.) Remove the check from “Hide Protected Operating System Files
(Recommended)”
09.) Choose Yes to the warning
10.) Click OK
11.) Double click C:

Note: In the future steps if you do not see any files or folders, please click
the “Show Files” link to view them.

12.) Double Click the Program Files Folder
13.) Right Click the Zone Labs Folder, click Delete, and choose Yes

NOTE: If you cannot delete the entire folder, please open the Zone Labs -

ZoneAlarm folder and delete out as many of the files listed here as
possible.

14.) Close this window
15.) Click Start, Computer
16.) Double Click C:
17.) Double Click the Windows Folder
18.) Right Click the Internet Logs Folder, click Delete, and choose Yes
19.) Double Click the System32 Folder
20.) Right Click the Zone Labs Folder, click Delete, and choose Yes

NOTE: If you cannot delete the entire folder, please open the Zone Labs
folder and delete out as many of the files listed here as possible.

21.) Locate and delete the following files in the System32 folder if they are
present:

  • vsconfig.xml
  • vsxml.dll
  • vsregexp.dll
  • vsdata.dll
  • vsdata95.vxd
  • vsdatant.sys
  • vsmonapi.dll
  • vspubapi.dll
  • vsinit.dll
  • vsutil.dll
  • vswmi.dll
  • zlcommdb.dll
  • zlcomm.dll
  • zpeng24.dll

22.) Clear your Temp Directory per the instructions below.

  • Go to Start → Run
  • Type %temp% and click OK
  • Select all of these files and delete them

23.) Clear the Prefetch folder per the instructions below.

  • Go to Start → Run
  • Type Prefetch and click OK
  • Select all of these files and delete them

NOTE: If you do not have the Run option on the Start menu, you can press
and hold the Windows logo key and tap the letter R .

24.) Remove the necessary registry entries:

*Important Advisory: Deleting registry entries incorrectly may cause
serious problems to your operating system, which may necessitate the
need to reinstall it. Please make sure you are able to perform these
deletions correctly before you decide to edit the entries. If you are not
sure, you should seek help from someone who is familiar with editing the
registry.

For information about how to edit the registry in Windows, from your
desktop, click Start → Run → and type regedit. Click on Help → Help
Topics. Under the Contents tab, click Change Keys and Values (this may
be found under the How to… section).

Also, you should always make a backup of the registry before editing it.
You can find this in the same section of the Help files.

To remove the needed registry entries, go to Start → Run and type in
regedit. Choose OK, and use the folders on the left side of the Registry
Editor window to navigate to the specified directories below. Note that you
will remove the entire folder specified (eg. Zone Labs, vsmon, vsdatant):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Zone Labs
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\vsmon
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\vsdatant

25.) Close this window, then empty your recycle bin.
26.) Restart the computer.
27.) Try to install the latest version again.

I tried all this and still wasn’t able to install Comodo.

8

Sorry, what I meant was for you to try this.

  1. Reinstall the version of ZoneAlarm you previously had installed.

  2. Uninstall it using Revo Uninstaller (using the settings described in the guide)

  3. Then run the cleanup tool for ZoneAlarm that was mentioned above.

  4. Perform a registry scan and remove what it finds (after making a registry backup of course).

I’m hoping that after all of this you will be able to install CIS.

Also, can you please clarify a few questions for me.

  1. What OS are you using (also is it 32 or 64 bit)?
  2. Are you sure you downloaded the correct version from the website?

Sorry for the misunderstanding above. I really hope this works.

9

No worries. OK I did all that, but when I run the clean up tool, nothing happens again, just like before. The little egg timer appears on the cursor as if something’s happening, for around 2 seconds, but then nothing.

  1. I’m running XP Home 32 bit
  2. I definitely downloaded the correct version, I even redownloaded it to be sure.
10

We are gonna take a look to see if there are some old drivers of your previously uninstalled security programs are still around. Go to Device Manager → View → show hidden devices → now look under Non Plug and Play drivers → when you see a driver that belongs to your previous security programs click right → uninstall —> reboot your computer.

When the problem persists make sure there are no auto starts from your previous security programs. Download Autoruns and run it.

This program finds about all auto starts in Windows. This tool can therefore seriously damage Windows when not handled properly. After starting push Escape and go to Options and choose to hide Windows and Microsoft entries, to include empty locations and then push F5 to refresh.

Now check all entries to see if there are references to your previous security program. When you find them untick them. After unticking reboot your computer and see what happens.

11

The only driver I found belonging to a previous security program was “AVG Free AVI Loader Driver x86” as shown in the screenshot below.

I ran Autoruns, and it found something called avgrsstarter, which I unticked and rebooted the PC. After all this, I tried reinstalling Comodo Firewall, and again, the same thing happened & I received the same error message I’ve been receiving. Surely there’s a way to get it working, but it just seems we’re running out of things to try now which is a shame.

http://i31.tinypic.com/17x1kl.jpg

http://i27.tinypic.com/2h7qu0w.jpg

12

Perhaps it is Windows Security Centre which will stop Comodo from installing if it believes you still have protection from your previous Security software.

The “final solution” may be to rebuild the repository so that Windows corrects its mistake

There are relevant posts following my question about this at

Please look at on page 2.
« Reply #17 on: October 31, 2009, 07:27:34 PM »
That is what I linked to but this website is does not understand its own links and is wrongly showing page 6 ! ! !

Please note that Windows may be a bit broken, in which case it could fail to rebuild the repository,
so it may be better to not remove it but to rename it in case of disaster.

When I first used the cleanup tool I knew of no dangers. It failed to rebuild the .NET Framework components. In general I have noticed no loss of functionality - but that may be due to never using anything that depends upon .NET framework. “Your mileage may be different” ! !

Regards
Alan

13

"Session verification failed. Please try logging out and back in again, and then try again. "

^^ I keep getting that message whenever I try to go on the link you posted. I’ve tried logging out & back in around 10 times now, but I keep getting that same message.

14

That link was taken from a post in page 2.
After I sent my answer to you I double checked what was published and found it went to page 6,
so I edited to tell you how to get to the page 2 target.

Website has gone further wrong, that link gives me today the same aggravation as you.
Perhaps what they first gave me was not a link to a fixed entity but a reference to a copy in some dynamic cache memory ! ! !

Start again from the beginning :-
https://forums.comodo.com/install-setup-configuration-help-cis/cleanup-tool-for-comodo-internet-security-t36499.0.html
If that fails look at the top item in “Important Topics” immediately above these “Normal Topics”

Having got to cleanup-tool-for-comodo-internet-security move to page 2
then search for
“Reply #17 on: October 31, 2009, 07:27:34 PM”
and read all the questions and answers in that and adjacent posts.

Alan

15

I ran the cleanup tool and tried to install Comodo Firewall once again, yet the same thing happened. I don’t see how the cleanup tool would be necessary anyway, considering I’ve never had any Comodo products installed in the past.

To be quite honest, this is getting annoying as I’ve been trying to install Comodo Firewall (which is meant to be one of, if not THE best firewall in the World at the moment) for the past 2 weeks, yet I can’t for some unknown reason, and nobody knows why.

I appreciate the help I’m getting, but it seems that people think I’ve had Comodo installed in the past, yet that isn’t the case. I’ve never had it installed, and it’s ridiculous that I can’t even install it for the first time.

I also read the posts in the thread about the cleanup tool, yet they didn’t help, considering they were based on the assumption that people have had Comodo installed in the past, whereas I haven’t whatsoever.

16

You seem to have ignored the PURPOSE of my information.

Windows Security Centre is NOT specifically designed to aggravate Comodo.

Instead it aggravates every-one ! !

Perhaps it thinks you still have "AVG Free " installed, and it will not let Comodo in because it objects to have different security products that conflict. It may also prevent Norton or many other things.

Perhaps you need to rebuild the repository.

The normal cure is to rebuild the repository, and this should cause Windows Security Centre to realise that it is legitimate to permit new security software.
Sometimes it causes a problem and it may be easier to recover if the original repository is renamed and NOT deleted.

I merely gave you a reference to show you how to rebuild the repository by use a couple of simple DOS console commands - NOT BY RUNNING THE ENTIRE SCRIPT. That reference also gives pros and cons for reasons and methods of repository rebuild.

Alan

17

OK thanks, but what exactly am I meant to do with those commands? All I see is the following and I’ve no idea what it means or what to do with it:

"NET STOP WINMGMT /Y
cd “%windir%\system32\wbem"
RD /S /Q “Repository”
NET START WINMGMT /Y”

Am I meant to paste all this into CMD or something?

18

You can run CMD.EXE and at the DOS prompt give it four commands,
one at a time and waiting after each one for DOS to execute and prompt for the next command.
The NET ??? command may take some seconds.

NET STOP WINMGMT /Y
cd "%windir%\system32\wbem"
RD /S /Q “Repository”
NET START WINMGMT /Y

Please note that you need the quotes exactly as shown,
you posted one to many in each of
“NET STOP WINMGMT /Y
and
NET START WINMGMT /Y”

If you need more information I again suggest you read the posts I designated on page 2 in the other topic devoted to the cleanup tool.

Alan

19

So I enter each line into CMD.exe one at a time, for example “NET STOP WINMGMT /Y” then press Enter, then "cd “%windir%\system32\wbem"” then press Enter etc etc?

If so, I tried this but the 3rd line (RD /S /Q “Repository”) didn’t do anything, except for displaying an error message which read “The system can not find the file specified”.

I tried installing Comodo again after all this, yet once again it didn’t install.

I contacted Comodo technical support and all they did was tell me to get help on the forums… Well that’s exactly what I’ve been doing but nothing seems to be working.

20

Three possibilities spring to mind :-

FIRST POSSIBILITY
You were issuing commands with the wrong drive in use.
This is cured in my bullet proof ZapBeta.txt posted many months ago
it requires CD to include the /D option.
I show below my DOS screen after the CD and DIR commands
First without /D

D:\##> D:\##>CD "%windir%\system32\wbem\"

D:##>DIR R* /A:D
Volume in drive D is D_new
Volume Serial Number is 6C85-C340

Directory of D:##

File Not Found
D:##>

And now with the /D option

D:\##> D:\##>CD /D "%windir%\system32\wbem\"

C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem>DIR R* /A:D
Volume in drive C is ACER
Volume Serial Number is EC16-8702

Directory of C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem

01/08/2009 16:48 Repository
0 File(s) 0 bytes
1 Dir(s) 8,246,095,872 bytes free

C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem>

SECOND POSSIBILITY
You may have run these commands in a previous attempt,
or you may have run the Cleanup-Tool which includes these commands,
in which case the Repository was already removed so it cannot now be found,
but with luck the repository should be rebuilt within a few minutes of rebooting the P.C.

THIRD POSSIBILITY
There is no Repository because Windows is corrupt and has lost the ability to rebuild the repository.
This is unlikely but possible, hence I pointed you to my posts in the Cleanup-Tool topic.
If Windows is broken an expert may be able to mend it for you, but I am not in that league.

I have no experience of fixing this problem, but have a guaranteed fix if it hits me,
I will restore C:\ from an Acronis Disc partition image I made earlier.
A more painful solution is to re-install Windows (pity it came pre-installed without installation discs).

Alan