worst software

Look. In my job as a 3D graphics designer I try out a lot of software.

Over time I have seen the good, the average, the bad, the lousy and the stinking, putrid, detritus that passes for code. In this final category I will list some outstanding mentions. This software was so bad that it needed a radioactivity sticker:

XSI Softimage: before Autodesk bought this program it was awful. Once I downloaded the trial version and couldn't get it to start. So I went to the Softimage page and it said that to "get it to start" I had to do a triple somersault and climb up Everest. No thanks. Bye. Not my job. Especially when the software was charging 2000 dollars[!].

Nortons Anti-Virus: this was bad. In 2002 I had a virus on my PC for 2 years. A common virus in fact: loveletter. Norton never found it even though the virus was doing funky stuff like changing my font to German and saying on the screen "whats up? missing something?" in English. So I tried to uninstall Nortons. Not so fast! It wouldn't uninstall. It popped up a box every 5 seconds that said "partly uninstalled". The box took up my whole screen. Task manager wouldn't kill the box. It was making my computer unusable. I had to kill the box with Winpatrol that thank goodness I had installed. For the price that Nortons charged [ 70 bucks a year] their gall in making such sewerage was beyond belief. I vowed ever since that no computer of mine will EVER touch anything Nortons or Symantec. Nortons was so bad that it would have been better to have had no AV at all. I call it the pumpernickel bread of AV; you wouldn't feed Nortons to a horse.

I doubt if you can top those 2.

 

I'm not certain what the point is here, unless you wish to know what other members consider the worst software they ever tried? As for Norton, Norton in 2002 and Norton in 2013 are entirely different universes. I don't believe you could get a positive comment about Norton from those early years even if you paid someone to do so.

 

You're underestimating the industry

 

My Free Antivirus was around for a bit about 5 years ago.

It was so awful that it actually detected itself as malware.

It cant get much worse than that.

 

CA Internet Security

 

Panda Platinum

 

Panda Web Filter Toolbar.

 

I've experienced a lot of crappy software.

Maybe the worst was McAfee Security Suite that came pre-installed on my Dell tower in late 2005. The entire application itself was pure s**t and the company business model was even worse. No matter what I tried, the suite would not completely uninstall and remnants rendered the OS inoperable. That led to my first experience with clean-installing Windows on a wiped drive. Never, ever again for anything McAfee.

Others include my admittedly brief experience with Windows 8, Acronis True Image 2011, Comodo System Cleaner (totally nuked the registry), Spybot (never found anything even when it was clear the system had numerous infections), ditto for SAS, Ad-Aware, and Ewido. In the AV category, Rat DVD and ShrinkTo5 were absolutely awful.

There are many more;
these are the ones that immediately come to mind.

 

2004 was the worst Norton ever. It was the first year for activation and it would prompt for activation on every boot. It would run out after 5. That was where they lost me the first time.

Not security related but Quickbooks continues to be someone of the worst quality software ever produced.

 

Norton bloatware clingware, awful , intrusive to be feared. Paragon stuff looked ok but never seemed to work properly, I lost all confidence in Paragon Software and even when I won a prize on Wilders never used it.
Acronis True Image was unstable and glitchy always fighting with it, always problems various versions...Acronis Migrate Easy on the other hand, solid dependable, loved it, used it for years and never had a problem with it...strange.
System Safety Monitor conflicted with Shadow Defender so had to go.
Ewido conflicted/caused problems with other more useful software.
Of course Vista and Me, real dogs , hate Windows 8 and phone frontage.
I use Malwarebytes but I never use if for a full scan; I once let it have it's way and it ripped lumps out of my system. I only use it now to check individual files. AVG which was good earlier, (free version) became false positive central and lost it's status.
Really good software is rare and when I find one I hold it close.
I hate bloatware, hate adware, phone-homeware, software that is all front and no use, nagware, reminderware, software that doesn't allow you to own it, rentware/leaseware, overpriceware and any type of software that requires you to be online so it can check you out all the time and report back with stuff about you....and of course spyware and sneakware enveigles you in by looking promising then wants more from you than you originally anticipated.
That's all I can think of for now.

 

Ha-ha-ha...I had a feeling this thread would gain momentum

I remember some years ago lamenting about a Norton/Symantec Internet Security suite I had purchased. it was either 2004 or 2005. Terrible software It turned me off of Symantec for good.

Actually, I really liked the 2002 Norton firewall package. Their software seemed to go downhill after that year. They might be a lot better nowadays. Not sure, though, as I haven't used it for years.

 

Yeah, it's hard to resist...

I'd have to say the worst software I've ever seen is some of the older versions of McAfee. Just horrible in terms of it's impact on the system.

I guess I've seen some other bug-infested gems along the way, but the names escape me at the moment....

 

That was exactly when it started to go downhill. Then in 2009 it started to get better. 2010 was excellent in my opinion. 2011 wasn't bad. Since then it is going back down again. Version 21 (2014) wasn't to bad for a while, but currently it loads 2 taskbar icons and the Antispam plugin stops Outlook from sending email. They kept claiming that they fixed these issues but last I checked (about a week ago) they were still broken. It must be terribly embarrassing for them. But not enough so to fix it I guess.

 

@sdmod,

Re Post#10: Hard to believe you'd include Malware Bytes, Acronis True Imaga and System Safety Monitor as the worst programs.

 

Of course it's malware like those commercial keyloggers.

 

And none of the security programs like to detect them, actually saying they are legitimate. SpyReveal (formerly SpyCop) detects them, but that's about it.
I think you may be right, J_L. Commercial keyloggers.

Btw, anybody know anything about this?
Like, is it real? And when did the software go belly up?

 

Windows Millenium Edition.

You've experienced pain with Vista early days, real pain? That was nothing.
I'd rather grab my old Commodore 128, the 5.25 floppy drive and a modem and get that working than a box with WinME.
It can still make me curse, literally. I'll never forget telling my dad: "Sure, it's better than Win98, I'd advice you to buy that box".

 

Malware and PUP/PUA aside...

Comodo Time Machine 2.9. In my case (and probably a few others), they really meant it when it's labelled 'Beta'. To be fair, others have had better luck.

As for AV programs, McAfee, Kaspersky and Norton all share the crown for being the most resource-intensive AVs I have ever tried. I can't remember the exact versions but they were a long time ago.

System optimization/tweaking tools that provide bad or debunked tweaks. Registry "cleaners" were tried out of curiosity and found that most of them are just unreliable thanks to stupid FPs.

3rd-party firewall that on certain settings allow inbound access for arbitrary apps.

Browser: IE versions prior to IE9.

 

Contenders:
Windows ME for being so unstable, Adobe Reader for being so insecure and bloated, MS Office versions because of Clippy the most annoying, unhelpful tool ever, Adobe flash for being so insecure
But my winner is IE6 for being so broken a browser for so long, MS un willingness to update or replace for so long.

 

Hey, this thread actually turned into something. Windows ME, ahh the love/hate relationship I had with that old girl. I quite liked it when it behave itself. I have had some pretty junky software from MSN and Earthlink back when they mattered as an ISP.

 

Oh the bad old days. No tabs, slow as molasses, no transparency, icons hogging space, popups everywhere. But the one good thing about it is that it's not half bad at downloading flash images by itself.

- Also, I agree on McAfee, which I didn't like at all years ago when we were using it on our former family computer.

- Some software called SimPE to modify items in The Sims 2. Must have been fine for lots of modders, but it made my system unbootable. I had to insert an XP disc just to be able to get rid of it and have everything working again. It's beyond me why a freaking item editor should mess with the entire OS.

Well, he/she does have a point.

 

I assume you're referring to legitimate software. Otherwise I'd nominate the old Kazaa bundle. I've never seen anything that was more "in your face". An interlocking mass of processes that protected, restarted, and repaired each other that continuously kept growing. On a couple PCs, getting rid of the bundle and all of the adware they downloaded freed up several gigabytes.

For legitimate software, there wasn't much that was more vulnerable, responsible for more infections, caused more resource problems, or was more of a system bogging mass of bloat than Internet Explorer 6.

 

Some of the earlier beta versions of SSM were real nightmares. I can definitely see it conflicting with Shadow Defender, especially in regards to its registry and services protection.

Acronis as an installed program was quite bloated. Too many processes. Too bloated with features that were nearly useless. I threw it out shortly after I got it, but kept the rescue disk. The rescue disk is quite capable of making and restoring backup images, at least for Windows.

 

My experience exactly. ATI always failed me. I tried & tried again & again after others here raved & raved about ATI. Paragon was hit & miss, so it had to go. When I was learning about computers & after FUBARing many OSs I installed a drawer system in my tower & MigrateEasy saved me hundreds of times every time.

Now I've moved on to imaging. And I've found nothing easier & more dependable than EaseUS Todo Advanced Server.

 

Image software has to be reliable, and Acronis wasn't it in my experience, not to mention the bloat. +1 for McAfee and Norton. Speaking of pre-installed software that's hard to get rid of, RealPlayer comes to mind. I recall PC Tools Spyware Doctor being one if the most resource heavy security apps that I ever tried about 5 years ago.

I think the anti-spyware industry was created because of IE6...

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