ZoneAlarm Free offline installation, how to?

Question

I read here that offline installation of ZoneAlarm Free are not available anymore since September 2015.

Is there a way to trick the ZoneAlarm Free installer and save a copy of the full offline installation files on my computer?

I mean the installer (which is a small file about 3MB) probably just downloads the full installation files and than installs them straight away. Finally it obviously deletes them. Is there a way to trick it and keep a copy of the full installation files on the local computer?

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FYI: the reason to do this is that ZoneAlarm Free versions always change, and not necessarily future versions are better than the one I'm using now (14.1.048.000) on my Windows 7 Pro computer, and I would like to keep it in case next version of ZoneAlarm Free does not work as well as the one I use now.

Solution 1

There's no trick to it.

The installer downloads the files to a temporary folder, then executes the .msi file and the installer runs, then it deletes the .msi file.

What you need to do is figure out where this .msi file is stored after you run the installer and you are on the first screen of the actual installer. Don't press next and let the complete. Just wait at that screen.

You can use programs such as procmon.exe to monitor file changes and spot the msi file. Once this is located and the installer is running, copy this file (or if more, copy them all) to a separate folder, then cancel the installer.

In order to get the best results, it is strongly advised to close all programs. progman will show you everything, and with many programs open, you'll easily have over 10,000 lines to spit through, including registry changes etc. You can filter for file changes only though, but with many applications open, this still may make it uncertain which one you're looking for.

Now from your new location, run the msi to install and test that this works.

It is possible the zonealarm uses a setup.exe, not an .msi file. This is different per installer

Solution 2

@LPChip described a great approach! I transform it a little - I added some more concrete steps and optimizations to it:

1. Close all programs.
2. Go to folder %Temp% and delete all files there
3. Start online installer
4. The actual installation starts without conformation, so kill its process from Task Manager.
5. Look for a new folder in %Temp% folder. If you are not sure, look files' dates.
6. I got folder {907A1104-E812-4b5c-959B-E4DAB37A96AB}.
7. Make a backup of it! Let’s name the backup folder X.
8. Stop internet manually (if u want to be sure that offline version is working without internet)
9. Start Install.exe and finish install process.
10. At the end, the installer has deleted most of the files in the folder so store the backup X for later installs. Actually I recommend you to store an archive of backup folder X, because if you move X to flash drive and forget to make a backup of X before another install, files from it will be deleted by the installation…

I hope this approach will work for many other online installers.

Comments

[bh_earth0]

comodo internet security hass ofline installer in their site:comodo.com/home/download/during-download.php?prod=cis . reject the download prompt which is online 5mb installer. the scroll down to ** Download Offline Installer (70 MB+)** there it is. why would i suggest this . because i search sites i keep seeing those two . they looked similar .

[bh_earth0]

you can filter via target icon on procmon. to show only specific applicaton entries