Zone Alarm 8 - SP3 seems NOT to be needed.
My laptop reminded me for the umpteenth time that ZoneAlarm v 8 is out and that I should update, so I got round to it this evening.
The ZA installer told me I need Microsoft Fix KB943232, so I went after that. Google gave lots of warnings about it, implying it's SP3 by another name (SP3 is banned from this machine, having taken considerable time to remove after it goofed it up). Anyway, KB943232 isn't SP3, it's a fix to one particular .exe file; not guaranteed (they want folks to do the full SP3 thing, I suppose).
Some folks on the ZoneAlarm forum said ZA8 won't work without SP3, but I tried anyway. I downloaded the "fix" that goes with KB943232 - that was a palaver, including passwords and all sorts - and installed it. Then updated ZA to version 8.
It seems to work and I'm not on SP3.
I'm not sure I needed the "fixes" that ZA8 offers, but so far it's not causing any problems. I've got ZA 7.483 on my USB stick anyway, in case I need to go back to it.
Anyone know more/different? Should I remove KB943232, or is it harmless?