If you install the latest version, it should recognize that there's a version installed and upgrade it. As far as Zonealarm requiring you to let Firefox access the internet, that's actually a good thing. I think the version that costs money is preconfigured with certain applications and their signatures so it's easier to use. Forewarned is forearmed: any time a program that access the internet is upgraded, you'll need to give it permission the first time it runs. This is also a good thing. Years ago (probably around 2000) some security expert discovered that all the firewalls except zonealarm could be bypassed by naming a malicious program iexplore.exe. Zonealarm recognized that it wasn't the valid iexplore and blocked it. Now they all have this feature. The key is that you can't just always allow an executable whose name you recognize access the internet. If you didn't install any upgrades, patches, etc, you shouldn't get a message that the program has changed. Note that IE is often upgraded with Windows updates. One other note is that sometimes Zonealarm gets a little aggressive in blocking access. If you share devices on your network, you may need to designate it as a trusted zone. I do a lot of work with various VPNs and sometimes I need to set them up as trusted zones so Zonealarm will treat them as LANs. One other note on Ravencajun's advice that if you don't know for sure, don't allow the access, you may want to leave the "remember this setting" unchecked when you disallow access the first few times, just in case it's something that does need access and you just don't recognize it. There's a way to change these settings after the fact, but IMO it's easier to do them using the popup boxes.

Monitor adjustment fixed that problem.

At this point, I would try turning off the power supply and turning it back on again. If it starts ok, you're done. if not, the next steps depend on what happens when you try this. When you start again, take notes of any messages that show up in case we need the info in them to get to the next step.

This was the XP way---> start>control panel>sounds and audio devices then check the box place volume icon in the task bar? You can try that above on Vista and see if it works... The option may not be there on Vista though.... Or you can try below: Right Click on Taskbar > Properties > Notification Area tab > under system icons, check Volume.