worst software

Yes! That was the version that bricked my XP laptop. Ironically, I then moved on to eTrust, which later became CA Antivirus. It didn't damage the computer, but it didn't detect anything either.

CompuServe, in its later versions a stripped-down version of AOL, is another program I won't miss. Other bad software I am glad to be rid of includes Real Player, Sygate firewall (after Symantec bought it out then ruined it), and Lotus Word Pro, which used to crash on opening any .doc file with images.

 

- Aiseesoft/iCoolsoft/4Videosoft Video Converter (or anything under the same appearance)
- Xilisoft/AVCWare/ImTOO Video Converter (or anything under the same appearance)
- Prism Video Converter
- Next Video Converter
- Full Video Converter Free
- Quick Media Converter
- Aneesoft Video Converter
- Xlinksoft Video Converter
- iWisoft Video Converter and Video Downloader
- Format Factory
- SUPER (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer)
- Web of Trust
- Bitdefender Free
- Onimusha 3: Demon Siege PC Version
- Resident Evil 4 PC Version
- Java Runtime Environment
- Windows Media Player (in terms of video playback capability)
- All Windows 8's built-in Metro apps, or at least most of them

...and many more, which I couldn't really remember. These are the worst non-malicious software I've ever tried.

 

Yes a few years back I used it under Vista, and I was unable to restore the backup due to some error. In theory at least the backup should have been in perfect order as all the other files on the external hard drive were readable. But for some reason it would encounter a problem and then stop - there was not option to ignore the problem and continue the restore. Needless to say I was not impressed. I have the same problem too with backup software from Paragon.

To be fair, I am a registered user of True Image as the rescue CD does an excellent job of cloning hard drives.

 

Old versions of Norton definitely get my vote for the following reasons:
For some reason (I guess only Symantec knows why) quite often there would be changes made which would stop the auto updating of definitions. This could be fixed by manually running Live Update and downloading the needed updates. However, until you did this, Norton would not download updates, and to make matters worse you would receive no error message saying it was unable to download updates, and it was very easy to not notice the absence of the very small popup window which appeared briefly after the definitions were automatically updated. After some time (I think maybe after a week) or not updating, a popup would come up saying that Norton was out of date.

The second reason is that after you downloaded any product updates from Live Update which required a reboot to take effect, after Live Update installed the updates, you were given only one option - to reboot, there was no option to not reboot. This meant that if you did not want to reboot at the time you would have the leave the window with the reboot notification running.

Another flaw too is that product updates would only be checked for by manually running Live Update.

At the time, the free version of Avast was my antivirus of choice, and it handled updates much better. There were never any issues with it automatically downloading updates, and you would be notified when a new product version was released, and given the option to for Avast to automatically download and install the new version. After which you were given a choice as weather you wanted to reboot or not.

 

Hahaha are you sure that you didn't forget to add a Video Converter or two Did you read of a list or did you remember all these just like that

I can agree on Java on that list, the built in update function never worked when I tried to updated Java during the years I had it installed. Long gone now though

 

Flash isn't much better. Oh it will eventually tell you there is an update, but it might be two weeks, it might be a month after the update is released. And good luck with the "automatic" process. You are much more likely to have to visit Adobe and do it your darned self. Oh, I have another to add to this topic, though it is an entire line of products and not just a single example. Stay away from Applian, the makers of the "Replay recorders". The products will work just fine usually. But if you ever try to uninstall them, you are in for surprises such as drivers that can't be deleted without resorting to drastic measures.

 

iTunes 11.x - what a user-interface nightmare! I love and continue to use versions 9.x and 10.x, but 11.x was the first bit of Apple Software I nearly threw-up on. Most people never liked iTunes in an version, because of the large code size and need to hate "something Apple".

Anything RealPlayer from back in the day. Too much advertising, too many hooks into your system.

Any sort of software that has to "re-register" or verify itself in order to stay operational. Any phonehomeware is a no-no on my systems.

Surprisingly, I have to include shareware in this list. Too many times I've purchased something only to not get support years later. Besides, there's plenty of freeware and donationware.

Anything with online help files. What happened to the .CHM or extensive readme.txt files? You now have to have an internet connection to read the manual. What if I want to read the instructions while taking a crap on the winter cruise or in an airplane that doesn't have wi-fi yet?

Pre-installed bundle packages that come with a modern system. These are the worst! There is so much crapware (all-inclusive term) which interrupts you and gets in your way. So much that a system is basically un-usable, especially for kids and newbies. Now pile on automatic updates and subscription reminders. I don't see how anyone can have a good experience unless you're a tech head and can tediously remove that stuff.

Java and flash stuff. I just don't like it.

Recuva from Piriform. While I don't claim the program itself is bad, I do claim it instills a false-confidence in users looking to recover their data. This is little more than a glorified undelete program which looks like it can do magic. And the support forums tend to encourage using it and trying all sorts of other avenues. Sometimes this causes more damage because noobs simply don't know all the ins and outs of data recovery operations.

I remember ordering my first PC system, a 80486, a DX2/50, from Gateway. Still have it! I had the choice of what productivity application I could get! The salesman made me feel so important because I was getting real & genuine Microsoft software as freebie bonus! It was great. I picked Word, as you can probably guess! And there was no other **** on the system. Believe it! No malware or shovelware or free trial offers. It was ready for serious business. Not like the **** you get from retail today. I was able to turn it on and get to work immediately! The only thing IIRC was a reminder text file or something in the start folder to fill out the warranty cards and all that. To get rid of it it told you to delete the icon.

I still have that computer today.

 

America Online (AOL). All those cd-roms that they were mailing to people....

 

I forgot a few hundreds I think. It took me months, MONTHS!, to try out various video converter software. Freeware and trialware, open source and closed source. Until one day, I found the one that fitted my requirements. Most of the trialware I've tried are not even worth cracking.

 

Great job! Must have been the happiest day of your life after all that hard work looking for it Incase I need one myself could be good to know what the best one is called so I don't need to go through the same list myself?

 

In my limited experience, I have had very good results from the free conversion utilities at http://pazera-software.com/

 

Indeed! I was so desperate back in those days. They were too buggy, gave poor output quality, messed up the codecs in my computer, videos got out of sync, or even failed to encode at all.

XMedia Recode. One funny thing about this software is newer version might introduce new bugs instead of fixing it. So sometimes I need to use the older version. But when you get it right, it's truly a high quality software.

Pazera is way too limited for my requirements, but I agree that it's a good video and audio converter software if one wants a simple tool that works.

 

WinME + Avast 5 = worst combo ever

 

Yes, Norton Internet Security 2004 was definitely the worst in memory, I could accept the software slowing down my computer as a trade-off for security, but 2 e-mails out 3 could not be sent because of NIS interference, I couldn't contact anybody from Symantec without paying, therefore I had to uninstall it after 6 months. Unlike others, I don't ever go back to a company for which I wasted money unnecessarily.

There is another software I will not name as they have a forum at Wilders, which not only didn’t work properly but it completely killed my new computer to the point that even re-installing Windows was not possible as it managed to delete the partition table… No malware could have done such a thorough job! I'm sure latest versions are not so damaging, but I wouldn't install it again even if they paid me.

 

I have yet to see good wholesome integrated, complete, non-tedious video format converters. All the ones I've experienced to date are dis-jointed or incomplete or seem to serve as advertisements for other more complete products. Frakking amazing.

I had high hopes for the xilisoft or immtoo video converter, but the trial choked on a few simple tests and didn't handle the queue correctly. Not only that, they hide things in the registry and like to phone home.

Audio converters fared little better. But, there are a few payware audio converters which are outstanding and complete and do the job nicely.

I come from the 8-bit days of the Apple II and C-64 and Atari 400/800. In those days we had single disk and single-file "apps" and games. None of the stuff phoned home or needed complex interactions with the operating system to get real work done. Let alone be activated online. The arcitecture and capabilities of the machines of the day were simply too limited to be wasting resources on **** like that.

So, presently , I like to carry that philosophy with me and my software. All software I use must be 100% capable of being installed and operated indefinitely and independent of the internet. If the internet were to explode tomorrow I would fully expect to carry on my day to day operations and tasks without it. I would also expect to be able to rebuild and recreate my OS environment on a brand new disk. The internet is an option, not a necessity!

So far this methodology has served me extremely well.

 

Keatah:

yes i would prefer things to be all in one directory like my amiga.

You could have a look at portable apps as these are all converted to run off a flash drive they are similiar to old school one directory.

I am trying to move as much as my apps to portable app versions that i can.

Martin

 

I like that feeling, it's like finding gold

Great I will try to remember it when I am in need for one, thanks

 

have you tried iTunes? Kies is crap but iTunes (on Windows) is even worse. i need Kies for my phone and tablet, but i stopped updating it (and my samsung devices) maybe 6 months or a year ago because the updates made things worse.

Norton was obviously crap, probably still is, I also experienced problems removing it back in the day. But now a days that's a danger with most big anti-virus and firewall suites. they leave drivers and leftover crap all over the place...

Acronis used to be good back in version 8,9,10 or something, but then it became problematic around the time they switched from version numbers to year, e.g. acronis 2010, 2011, etc. uninstall issues again... and since then it also grew bloated as hell.

I don't remember the names anymore, but some registry cleaners have been problematic for me and none of the system boosters or process controllers made any difference (and now that i have SSD I don't even need those things).