The worst software you have ever used?

barneysplash

Hi all

I thought I'd start a thread where we could exchange stories
about the worst computer programs ever.

Consider this a form of therapy, by sharing what you've been
through with others, we can all benefit.

I mean, nothing will make you want to pull your hair out
like a rubbish computer program, that makes it difficult
for you to get your work done.

If you can help others by detailing what you did to get
around the problem, that would be cool too.

Remember, sharing is caring!

For me, it has to be the HP ScanJet Software that
comes with their ScanJet scanners.

These scanners are quite popular small offices or home settings.

I tried using one today, I was dreading it, as a result of past
experience and it really took the biscuit today.

I wanted to scan 1 page of a simple floor plan for the boss.

I scanned it, got the preview and according to the software
my file had been saved to C/Docs+Settings/MyDocs/MyScans.
So I open the folder and it's empty.

So I try to change the save directory to another location,
do another scan. I open the folder where I asked it to save
the image. It's empty.

Then there's trying to do a simple edit job.

I just wanted to chop a bit of the blank white edge of the
page off, to reduce the file size.

I pulled the dotted line around where I wanted to crop the image,
as you do. Then click acceptand the scanner decides to take another scan
of the page again for a "final view" of the image I've just taken.???

And another thing, who in their right mind wants to save a 4.5MB bitmap
image of a simple black and white A4 page of text.
Great default settings there, HP.


Anyway, I went outside for a break and took some deep breaths.

After I'd calmed down, I went to a pal in another department who
had the exact same scanner. But he had been able to install
a copy of Presto Page Manager.

I placed the sheet, clicked acquire and with 2 or 3 clicks
it was saved on my memory stick.

He even did a PDF export of the file as well.

It was how scanning should be.

So after that rant, what is your horror story?

How did you cope?

What did you do?

kuban-83

I don't have a Software in my mind at the moment, will need to thing about that, but I've something else which was for me and I thing for a lot of people there a massive Bull****:
Windows Millenium.

From the beggining when I installed this windows it was giving me a lot of problems, with the network connection, a lot of drivers. There were problems with starting games, direct x etx. I tried to solve all the problems, but after 3 weeks, when it started to bring me Blue screens i gave up


I will thing about some Softwares

cherryghost

steam on 64bit vista

crashes sometimes, big load of s!ite

cpu-dude

Musicmatch Jukebox

Sad Professor

barneysplash wrote: »

For me, it has to be the HP ScanJet Software that
comes with their ScanJet scanners.

+1

I've owned two HP scanners and never managed to get their software to work properly. After about a year they usually release an update that fixes a few things while breaking several others. Their software is garbage and enough to put me off buying any of their hardware again.

DublinWriter

Oracle apps.

kuban-83

Now I've one. Clarify

Spear

Outlook, it's omnipresent despite being a total wreck of an app.

humaxf1

Spear wrote: »

Outlook, it's omnipresent despite being a total wreck of an app.

The 2GB pst limit is a joke. Email is a big part of office/personal life now. I suppose it stems from yearssss ago when people may not have much email. As for "joke powerpoint" attachments, they don't help with folder size.

The search tool in OL is dreadful. The archive tool "wording/description" is typical Microsoft and at the end of it, you're still none the wiser as to what you have clicked and what will happen. Put your hands together and PRAY that it doesn't keel over.

calex71

kuban-83 wrote: »

Now I've one. Clarify

The bane of every call center employee, to be honest the only problem i had with it was the frequent crashes. The software itself was pretty good compared with other packages i used who's names i cant remember .

What was the one that required you to have like about 4 or 5 windows open when it was running now that was a croc

KTRIC

Windows ME :mad:

Total train wreak of an OS

Blazer

humaxf1 wrote: »

The 2GB pst limit is a joke. Email is a big part of office/personal life now. I suppose it stems from yearssss ago when people may not have much email. As for "joke powerpoint" attachments, they don't help with folder size.

20GB limit in Office 03/07 versions.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832925/

kaimera

did sw testing a few years back;

some all-singing-all-dancing communication tool for companies.

wow was it ****. no idea was it released.

most recent pos software was dvd flick I used last night; 13 hours later on a i7 rig and it had frozen @ 66% of creating the iso file. **** off and die you useless pos.

wrt steam on x64 vista; no probs here!

Tallon

cpu-dude wrote: »

Musicmatch Jukebox

oh god.... I thought I had blocked that memory out... what a diabolical programme

barneysplash

I can use it now, but when I started work, SAP mystified me.

What about Real Player? It's still bad, but nothing like the
"infiltrate and takeover your PC by stealth" versions back in
the late 90s.

On the other hand, the best software I ever used has to be
Macintosh Basics

I remember using this program to learn how to use a Mac, and get
the basics of personal computing, in a well made and easy to use
program.

I used it on an Apple LC III in Waterford RTC, now (WIT) back in the 90s.
It was one of my personal "Eureka moments", that I'll always cherish!

sceptre

No-one's mentioned Microsoft Bob or dBase IV yet.

To be fair to MS Bob, it was mostly just pointless and annoying. Worst in my view would be dBIV by a country mile.

steppen

Norton

or anything to do with sony music products

neil_hosey

windows tbh..

donmeister

ZoneAlarm,its a good product but my god is it head wreaking!

mehmeh12

Norton antivirus. Speaks for itself.

Windows OS. Just spent the last few days not using computer but removing a a possible virus. CPU is being used at 100%. Is dead slow. Am thinking a getting a mac somewhere down the line.

DublinWriter

sceptre wrote: »

No-one's mentioned Microsoft Bob or dBase IV yet.

To be fair to MS Bob, it was mostly just pointless and annoying. Worst in my view would be dBIV by a country mile.

dBase IV? Jaysus...you sound as old as me! Clipper/FoxPRO FTW!

...and of course Bob was Mrs. Gates pet-project...'nuff said...of course the dancing paperclip it eventually became was hailed as a big MS success.

Keedowah

Realplayer

Windows ME

Maximo

colly10

Lotus Domino Web Access springs to mind. I don't know if it's the software or how it was set up in my place.
If you set up a junk mail filter when it receives junk mail it tells you you got new mail :rolleyes:
You set it up to check for new mail every 5 minutes, you see a new one and read it and half an hour after you've read it it tells you you've got new mail.
The out of office doesn't send till hours after you send the mail so you could mail someone at 9 in the morning and not find out there away for another 6 hours.
Also even though I tell it to show me a week at a time in the calander it defaults back to a day everytime I login and by a day I don't mean today, it could be a week ago.
Just an awful heap of **** of a program and as far as I know its not even free

TonyM.

anything pre-installed by Dell

sceptre

DublinWriter wrote: »

dBase IV? Jaysus...you sound as old as me! Clipper/FoxPRO FTW!

Oh good lord, that's almost as bad

...and of course Bob was Mrs. Gates pet-project...'nuff said...

"Hey baby, I love your project, wanna go to the movies?"

of course the dancing paperclip it eventually became was hailed as a big MS success.

In honour of the death of the paperclip (v old vid but still funny to me):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS0vZFPnksk

Jonathan

Sony SonicStage


Had to use it with minidisc players back in the day.

indough

steppen wrote: »

anything to do with sony music products

amen

That_Guy

Hotspot Shield for me. I got it to allow access to watch say Fox or CNN shows online because you can't access them here.

Pile of sh*te really. Doesn't work at all no matter how long you wait.

Also Limewire. Had it installed on my old laptop and being young and naive I continued to dl constantly and therefore riddling my laptop with viruses.

Effluo

cherryghost wrote: »

steam on 64bit vista

crashes sometimes, big load of s!ite

never had any problems....

a tale of unknown random complete system failures:

Unforunately i downloaded a free 30 day trial of "gotomypc"
it's at gotomypc.com

It gives someone remote access to their pc, or indeed gives someone else access remotely.

well after i had finished trying to use it"just kept on crashing the server pc" it had no uninstall so i just removed it from the program list and then guess what happened?


Completely random, and i mean completely random complete system failures. These system failures were great as they created no log which might explain why it was crashing.
A few weeks later and after reinstalling pretty much every driver i then only realised that it was prob this program which had caused it and i had to do an os reinstall.

All the time and trouble this caused me.....

must have been days worth...

Keano

Real Player always annoyed me. Messages popping out of every corner of the app!

VLC all the way now.

yoyo

Itunes.. For some reason I Tunes wanted to duplicate a single song many times even though I only wanted it copied over once? Also Quick Time for the simple reason it still isnt 64bit compatible yet (the browser plugin shows a black bar instead of displaying the controls clearly).
Others would be Norton, Mc Affee, or allot of those junk anti viruses they load onto new pcs, also Google Desktop (Slows down pc considerably as it is indexing constantly), Back in the day of course the problems you would have with spyware loaded sh!te like Kazaa, Bonzy buddy etc which ruined pcs, could prob think of plenty more, but there ones in my mind right now

Nick

MadMossy

I just got Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 11 days ago.

It doesn't work.

It hangs during a full scan and a quick scan.
It doesn't allow you to switch it off using Task Manager.
It freezes the entire PC requiring a plug-it-out scenario.

Kaspersky are blaming customers other software for causing these conflicts and insist you send them some file with a breakdown of everything on your computer. This is rubbish, how come BitDefender, Trend Micro and all the others don't have this?

I contacted Kaspersky, stating that I have no intention of sending any file, the problem is obviously their crapware, and that if they can't send me a patch that fixes it I want my money back.

Here's the reply:

---

2009.07.27, 13:58 - Darrel Rendell:

Hello,

The software functions perfectly fine on hundreds of millions of users around the world, I'm sorry the same cannot be said for your machine.

Sadly, without any information (which does not include any personal data) we cannot help you.


It would be worth contacting Digital River our reseller directly, they can issue you a refund without delay.

the email address is below .

kaspersky.uk.cs@digitalriver.com

---

Their own support forums are crammed with people with the same problem and always the same reply, it's not our software it's your machine.

Google 'Kaspersky Crashes' and see for yourself

I'm running a Dell Inspiron 530, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2Gb of Ram and not much else on it bar internet and Paint Shop Pro. Windows Vista Home Basic.
It's a good enough spec and a modern enough machine that I shouldn't have any problems, yet here it is wrecked because of Crapersky.

DON'T BUY KASPERSKY - THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY, SELL YOU CRAPWARE AND DON'T SUPPORT IT.

yoyo

MadMossy wrote: »

I just got Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 11 days ago.

It doesn't work.

It hangs during a full scan and a quick scan.
It doesn't allow you to switch it off using Task Manager.
It freezes the entire PC requiring a plug-it-out scenario.

Kaspersky are blaming customers other software for causing these conflicts and insist you send them some file with a breakdown of everything on your computer. This is rubbish, how come BitDefender, Trend Micro and all the others don't have this?

I contacted Kaspersky, stating that I have no intention of sending any file, the problem is obviously their crapware, and that if they can't send me a patch that fixes it I want my money back.

Here's the reply:

---

2009.07.27, 13:58 - Darrel Rendell:

Hello,

The software functions perfectly fine on hundreds of millions of users around the world, I'm sorry the same cannot be said for your machine.

Sadly, without any information (which does not include any personal data) we cannot help you.


It would be worth contacting Digital River our reseller directly, they can issue you a refund without delay.

the email address is below .

kaspersky.uk.cs@digitalriver.com

---

Their own support forums are crammed with people with the same problem and always the same reply, it's not our software it's your machine.

Google 'Kaspersky Crashes' and see for yourself

I'm running a Dell Inspiron 530, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2Gb of Ram and not much else on it bar internet and Paint Shop Pro. Windows Vista Home Basic.
It's a good enough spec and a modern enough machine that I shouldn't have any problems, yet here it is wrecked because of Crapersky.

DON'T BUY KASPERSKY - THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY, SELL YOU CRAPWARE AND DON'T SUPPORT IT.

Interesting, the last time I tryed Kaspersky I ran into the same problems, it was about a year ago I'd say,

Nick

MadMossy

Nick,

My PC just hung again as soon as the software hit 19% of a full scan.

I literally have to power the machine off to get it back, it freezes solid.

I posted to the security forum because I am worried about the way Kaspersky now simply goes "Ah you have this software or that software, that's why ours doesn't work"

And also the fact the computer hangs, full RAM usage, Internet connection on and God knows what the software is sending out.

This is becoming censorship.

On their own forums one of the tech support staff basically said "You have Bittorrent, we don't support piracy, it's causing a conflict, you'll need to remove it". As far as I knew Bittorrent the application is perfectly legal.

They are designing software to eliminate other software and steer how we use the web.

petes

Limewire. Only used it minimally myself years ago but other people who use it and riddle their computer and ask me to fix it. I'll do it but I have told them in the first place not to use it!

brianwalshcork

sceptre wrote: »

Oh good lord, that's almost as bad

Can't comment on Clipper, but FoxPro has it's place for app development. Royalty free runtime distribution, means you only pay for the development license (<€600) and the IDE isn't bad.

Without going the open source route, you won't get very many visual studio licences + MSSQL server licences + MSSQL CALs for €600.

It's a pity MS are killing it off...

But this thread is more about end user applications, you can make a bad end user app in any language....

My vote for horrible software is iTunes.... grand when all is going well... but I've lost my music library for inexplicable reasons.... frequent large updates required too.

Brian

Steffano2002

Vista <- Hateful piece of honk

Steffano2002

Keano A Legend wrote: »

Real Player always annoyed me. Messages popping out of every corner of the app!

VLC all the way now.

VLC FTW! (And it's French!)

Cabaal

WinME, followed by IE

Overheal

AVG. Ive used faster apps. and i chose to give it a try right around the time the Linkscanner came about - what a terrible feature.

BaconZombie

AS/400

enda1

Steffano2002 wrote: »

VLC FTW! (And it's French!)

Still hate the way you can not tell it not to pod up errors! Only once one comes up can you tell it not to pop up subsequent errors but there seems no way to permanently tell it to shut up!

Otherwise ok...

tbaymusicman

The latest firefox and itunes

Keano

BOFH_139 wrote: »

AS/400

:eek:

Brings me back to my Cobol / RPG programming days in college!

Steffano2002

Overheal wrote: »

AVG. Ive used faster apps. and i chose to give it a try right around the time the Linkscanner came about - what a terrible feature.

Hated it when LinkScanner appeared! But easy to disable and still happy with AVG I must say.

Steffano2002

enda1 wrote: »

Still hate the way you can not tell it not to pod up errors! Only once one comes up can you tell it not to pop up subsequent errors but there seems no way to permanently tell it to shut up!

Otherwise ok...

True... But can't complain: it's freeware!

AlmightyCushion

An old belkin wireless utility. Complete pain in the arse to get it to connect to the network, then when it did it would drop the connection every couple of minutes despite being beside the router at the time. Used the built in wireless utility in windows and it worked a treat first time.