Zone Alarm's multiple initializations

Hello,

I have been using Zone Alarm's free firewall for some time now with regular updates (currently on version 7.0) with Windows XP Pro. Of late, I have noticed that it initializes at least three seperate times when I boot up my laptop. What is going on? I checked my programs in Control Pannel and it only shows up once, so it doesn't appear to be installed multiple times...

Can you advise, as it is really slowing down the computer boot up process?

 

I was under the impression that Zone Alarm had the most effective free firewall protection. Is this actually no longer the case? If not, can you advise me which free user-friendly firewall has taken its place?

Thanks.

 

I checked out download.com to compare how Comodo Firewall was rated, and while the vast majority of the latest user reviews were abysmal, I will give it a shot and remove Zone Alarm.

Thanks for your advice and drawing my attention to these other options.