The Most Annoying Software Out There

superglaze writes "ZDNet UK has a very entertaining round-up of the most annoying software out there, and everything from RealPlayer and Adobe Reader to Java and Norton Antivirus gets a kicking. 'The internet has brought us many joys. It's rewritten the rules of business and pleasure. And pain. For it allows what may have seemed like bright ideas at the time ('let's use it to make sure our customers have the latest software', for example) to turn into a stinking pit of misery — usually, but by no means always, after marketing gets its fangs in.'"

Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[elrous0 (869638)]

Print Version [zdnet.co.uk] (unless you want to click through about 10 pages)

And I agree with most of these, particularly Apple. I recently spent several hours trying to remove Quicktime from my system and replace it with Quicktime alternative. I had to go in and hand edit the registry. The damn program was incidious about wriggling it's way back into my system tray and running processes if every single reference to it wasn't removed from the registry. That will be the last piece of Apple software I ever install on my system.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[BadAnalogyGuy (945258)]

Worse than that, actually. If you try to delete qttray.exe, the quicklauncher app that sits in the task tray and eats up memory for no other reason than giving QT a minor boost on startup, the quicktime application will detect this on system reboot (because it is registered as a startup application) and recreate the qttray.exe executable file from a stored version somewhere in its own bowels.

That's right. If you delete qttray, Quicktime opens its maw and barfs up a new version of it. Then it turns it on and puts it back in the task tray.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[tha_mink (518151)]

Yeah, and the Safari "update". If I wanted yet *another* browser, I'd have installed it myself. Don't include it as a quicktime update. WTF? Seriously apple, WTF?

Make Microsoft Look Good day?

[Futurepower(R) (558542)]

I like this quote from the article, about Apple QuickTime: "... what is this, Make Microsoft Look Good day?"

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[BadAnalogyGuy (945258)]

Why should I change my usage? They're the ones that suck.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[pnewhook (788591)]

Because you're doing it wrong??

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[gaspyy (514539)]

No - if you disable it instead of deleting the entry, it'll stay away.

It's the first thing I do after installing stuff - disabling stupid startup items.

A hearty welcome to our latest new member

[zappepcs (820751)]

Welcome elrous0, to the 'what were they thinking? anti-software fan club'

Here we will help you commiserate as you belch out the pains brought to you by software that is premised on the thought that ALL users would surely want this software until the day they die.

With the mentality (and social skills) of clippy, these coders work double time to ensure that your experience with their software will be never ending. What could possibly be worse than malware you might ask. How about software that has an uninstall feature but won't do so?

I'm wagging my finger at you AOL, Apple, MS... you, antivirus guy in the back snickering, you can STFU too.

We're glad to have you as a member, and look forward to your votes in the awards ceremonies next year. Note that Internet infamy is your for the taking if your right up for nominees is both exacting and excoriating.

I'm still investigating, but the OOo quickstart on XP may get a nomination. HP printer driver division has a place on my list too.

Anyway, mill around, meet the other members, enjoy....

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[RetroGeek (206522)]

I recently spent several hours trying to remove Quicktime from my system and replace it with Quicktime alternative. I had to go in and hand edit the registry.

You should try to remove Norton virus checker. It has pieces of itself everywhere, and it over writes Windows system files with its own.

So you get a brand new machine, and during the first login, the Norton installer runs. You have NO choice in this. Some deal was reached between the machine distributor and Norton, and that is just the way it is.

If you make a mistake, the entire Windows system goes sideways. We alway do an image FIRST, then try to remove it. That way if something blows up you have a fallback. Then we make an image for the rest of the same type of machine, and we re-image every new one that comes in the door.

Hey Norton: go stuff it!

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[Keruo (771880)]

Removing Norton is simple, it just takes few steps.

Just open Start->Settings->Control Panel->Add or remove programs and uninstall it. Reboot.
If the install asks for password, the password is symantec.
After reboot uninstall Live-Update, also from control panel. Reboot.
Then download norton removal tool [symantec.com] and run it to make sure it's gone.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[nmb3000 (741169)]

Then download norton removal tool and run it to make sure it's gone.

What irritates me is why the hell do they have an uninstaller if it, you know, doesn't uninstall the damn thing? I suppose if they're going to put removal tools for viruses on their site they may as well include one for their own "products".

The only people who write worse (un)installers than Symantec is Adobe. I truly think they have nothing but brain-dead chimps on their install team.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[FredFredrickson (1177871)]

You're right, that is simple.

I work in computer repair, and on more than just a few occasions, the actual uninstaller for norton doesn't work. In fact, it takes very little effort to get a copy of norton to stop functioning properly. The security center will warn that certain parts of the software aren't working properly- and when you try to fix it, they just don't work. So then you try to uninstall it, and it comes up with an error.

So, I'd like to correct your few steps:

Step 1. Run the Norton Removal Tool. Don't waste your time with any of the other steps.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[ceifeira (1230772)]

Simple?! Two reboots, a non-disclosed password (as far as I know), and an additional removal tool just to uninstall a piece of software?

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[carpe_noctem (457178)]

(unless you want to click through about 10 pages)

I hope I'm not the only one struck by the irony of this article formatting given that this it is criticizing bad UI design...

Norton Products...

[DaRat (678130)]

The worst has to be the Norton XXXX products. I installed Norton 360 v2 on my laptop as an "upgrade" to Norton AntiVirus 2007, and I think that intentionally installing a few viruses and malware would have resulted in better overall system performance.

Symantec tech support was, of course, useless:
"Sir, you have a virus or malware."
"Yes, I know: the malware is called Norton 360 since my problems didn't appear until I installed your product. What I want to know is how to stop Norton 360 from using 100% of both cores and incessently accessing the DVD drive for no apparent reason."
"Sir, you need to run a scan for virus and malware."

At least I got the damn thing uninstalled and got a refund. Never again...

Re:Norton Products...

[The Living Fractal (162153)]

Repeat after me:

AVG Free.
AVG Free.
AVG Free.

You should start to feel better soon.

Re:Norton Products...

[gravyface (592485)]

While I'm a regular AVG user (Free Edition at home, and Network Edition for my clients), the interface is attrocious, the malware encyclopedia is next to useless, and the bizarre update/error-state notices are a nuisance. Version 8 improved the admin console a bit, but not nearly enough.

Re:Norton Products...

[geekoid (135745)]

I just installed AVG free 8.0 and it immediatly told my I had a virus in an email and deleted my whole inbox.

Just an FYI

Re:Norton Products...

[KlomDark (6370)]

It's so much more fun to say "Avast! Avast! Avast!" - I've used AVG for years, but am finding Avast even better with a far better GUI. (Although shut off the audio alert "Virus Database Has Been Updated", especially when you have the speakers set for loud and then thing goes off at 4AM or when you're busy with your girlfriend. Scares the hell out of you!) http://www.avast.com/ [avast.com]

And they had 64-bit support before AVG, that's why I switched.

Re:Norton Products...

[Richard Steiner (1585)]

The decline of Norton is a sad story. I remember when Norton's Disk Doctor for DOS was cool, and when it was fun to watch Speedisk shuffle the clusters on your FAT filesystem all around. And it actually worked as advertised! :-)

What was the last good version? Norton Utilities for DOS 6.01?

Re:Norton Products...

[MrMr (219533)]

I'd say around 1990 or MS-DOS 5.0, when Peter norton sold his company to Symantec.

You haven't seen some of the alternatives

[Moraelin (679338)]

You haven't seen some of the alternatives, then.

Some years ago, for example, sick and tired of Norton, I went and bought McAffee's anti-virus. In fact, I figured I'd go for the full monte, including firewall, "privacy" stuff, you name it. I can't be arsed to dig up the CD and find out which year it was, and I wouldn't know if it got any better in the meantime. (Though I would be surprised.)

The first funny impression was when trying to update it. As is the craze in the last decade, it couldn't just have either a URL to their download page, or a neat little downloader program. It just had to launch an ActiveX control in a browser to do the actual download and install. It launched whatever browser you had configured as default. E.g., for me it was Mozilla. It only actually worked in IE.

But wait, the patcher was more stupid than that.

I didn't have too much space left on C:, but I had vast amounts of space on my slower D: drive. So I refuse to install it to the default location, and install it to D:.

Then I run the updater. It installs the updates to the default location on C:. Literally, it was too fucking stupid to either ask, or figure out where its own installer had put those programs.

It gets funnier. Presumably because it couldn't figure out where they were, it didn't uninstall or at least disable the origina, unpatched version on D:. It just let it run too.

If you think one anti-virus is a resource and CPU hog, now picture twice that. It felt like I had downgraded back to my trusty old 486.

Now I don't know how good their virus protection was, I didn't actually have a virus. Their privacy stuff, though, now that made most sites that required a login, no longer work. And it made some schizophrenic: they thought I was simultaneously logged in _and_ not logged in. It was giving me some insight into what Schroedinger's cat must have felt ;)

To cut a long story short, and skip over a few more faults, after a few days I uninstalled it.

The uninstaller, though, only got rid of the new patched copy from C:. It left the one on D: as it was, and loading itself in memory anyway. Trying the uninstaller from D: didn't seem to work either. I had to manually mess with the registry to get rid of it.

On the whole, it left me the impression that it makes malware look good by comparison. Ok, so you have to mess with the registry in safe mode too, to get rid of it, so it's a tie there. Most viruses don't use as many resources or interfere with your daily use of the computer half as much, though.

Winamp becoming Damned Irritating

[Toreo asesino (951231)]

I've noticed recently it's wanted to update itself about once every two weeks, which would be fine if it was a FireFox type update - nice and clean, restart app & done, but instead the update mechanism is something like the following:

Click on "omg! Update me!" big window.
Browse through newly openeded browser window.
No, just the free one, no shitty MP3's thanks.
Download. Click install.
No ffs, don't take control over all my media types.
No, keep your shitty ad-ware.
Die Winamp agent; if you're not the default for everything it's for a reason.
Yeah, same settings as last time (it's an update ffs).
Oh right, you changed a bunch of setting anyway, thanks.

There's just a tonne of questions that are so unnecessary for a minor update, which seem to come thick & fast these days. Thanks a bunch AOL; you've created the least smooth updating process i've seen in a while.

Bloody Adobe Reader

[tempest69 (572798)]

I have no clue as to why this program takes upwards of a minute to read a simple pdf file that is mostly text. It really boggles my mind as to what the computer could be doing with that time/cycles.. Where as foxit can load the same pdf in a blink of an eye.. but microsoft loves to revert the extentions to adobe, unless I march through a convoluted maze to revert it back. never let your well-meaning friend install adobe on your box, it's a nightmare to remove.

Storm

Re:Bloody Adobe Reader

[MBCook (132727)]

I've been using FoxIt recently which is quite nice. That said, Reading is an amazing piece of software.

It's slow. Really slow. Amazingly slow. It uses tons of memory. It's just atrocious. But I was used to it on Windows (before a friend pointed out FoxIt which I switched to immediately).

Then I switched to OS X and got to use Preview. It's wicked fast. It's like opening a 1kb text file in Notepad on Windows. It's almost instant. It's easy to use, no crazy interface, not 6 updates to the updater each time I open it.

Then I installed CS 2.

Soon I tried to open a PDF and thought my computer locked up because the file didn't pop open. After a bit the loading screen popped up and loaded. Then the program, then the document. It was terrible.

So I went and changed the file association and now Preview handles them again and my system works.

I remember when I had a full copy of Acrobat (not reader, Acrobat) and it opened about 10x faster than Reader does on the relatively high-end (multi-core, 2GB+ RAM) machines I've been forced to use it on.

Almost everything on the list was good at one time or another. RealPlayer, while not perfect, was small and fast. Norton (the first version for 95) was quite good, even on my slow 386 (yes... 386). Outlook used to be WAY faster than it is now. On my nice desktop it feels like I'm running it through VirtualWindows on a 500MHz G4.

Flash it's self isn't bad. But so many people seem to not use delay loops and let it run at 600 FPS and suck up all the CPU. Combine that with the terrible and slow interfaces people use it for and it gets a bad rap. Flashblock is your friend here.

Why just Windows Update?

[hyperz69 (1226464)]

I think they could have just said VISTA... Done! Though seriously this app misses, a few apps. Mainly... GOOGLE BAR? Dear god, does every application on the planet now try to install google bar? Completely removing it requires a virgin, 2 brillo pads, a priest, plus 6 gallons of goats blood.

Re:Why just Windows Update?

[eln (21727)]

Please do not speak ill of Google Bar. Google does no harm to anyone, and all of its software is useful and error-free. Speaking negatively of Google is unwise. Remember, they know where you live.

What?

[Daimanta (1140543)]

No Microsoft Bob?

Please let Apple software update be on there...

[shawnmchorse (442605)]

I'm almost to the point where I want to remove Quicktime from all of my machines, because I'm so tired of being asked to "upgrade" to Safari and iTunes.

Takes one to know one

[Roger W Moore (538166)]

Since they were including companies as well as just software I hereby nominate ZDNet for most annoying website. Why can't they stick the 11 short paragraphs making up the article on ONE PAGE!

My vote: HP

[truthsearch (249536)]

We have one of those all-in-one HP printers at my office, where we're all on Macs. When we first got the printer I installed the disk with the Mac drivers. It also installed a bunch of utilities. Playing around with these utilities I found a tedious maze of buttons and windows. I couldn't even find the most obvious features, like where to see a scanned document.

But I also noticed my computer was running slower, even when no HP utilities were being used. So I looked at the Activity Monitor and found the HP background applications were permanently taking up 10% CPU, even if nothing was ever printed or scanned. So I removed all of the HP utilities and drivers and found a driver built into OS X which was for almost the same model number. I have no problems at all printing and my CPU is back to normal utilization.

Not only do these HP utilities suck, but they're annoying when you're not even using them.

Re:My vote: HP

[Mordok-DestroyerOfWo (1000167)]

We were on on offshore survey in the Gulf of Mexico when one of our computers died. No problem I thought, I threw in a spare laptop SATA and reinstalled Windows and the survey software. When it came time to download the printer drivers from HP they came in at a whopping 135 MB! For a damn driver! We were on a satellite linkup and downloading that one driver to print out the results cost over $100.

Re:My vote: HP

[nine-times (778537)]

Oh, I really really hate this. When will printer manufacturers learn that I don't want to install your stupid little utilities?!

Give me plain, unadulterated drivers, not software installs. Give me a PPD/INF/whatever that I can point my OS to and use all of the built-in OS printing functions. That's all I want.

Same with cameras, scanners, and pretty much any other hardware out there. Give me the driver and leave me alone.

Update apps...

[Bert64 (520050)]

Update apps are a pain in the backside, but they are a symptom of the way windows and osx are designed...

There's no question that your system should be aware of what software is installed, and what the latest version is, and make the user aware too and give them the option to install the updates.

On linux you rarely, if ever, get problems like this because the updates are handled centrally.

The problem with windows and osx, is that there is no central way for third party apps to register to the automatic update mechanism, the supplied update functions are only for the original vendor's apps, not third parties, meaning every third party has their own update service wasting memory and informing/annoying you in different ways.

The linux approach is orders of magnitude better, centralised package repositories, a centralised method of informing the user, you can choose how to be informed of updates, and you won't be hassle any other way. To further help matters, the package manager knows of packages you don't have installed too, giving you single click access to the latest versions of a whole host of additional applications.

ARGHSFARGH!

[Aquaseafoam (1271478)]

The most annoying thing for me? The stupid little bubble that pops up to inform me that wireless networks are in range, even when I am running through a wired connection. The only way I've found to really get rid of this is to disable the connection, a hassle for whenever I try and go anywhere. Of course, this particular annoyance only really hits me nowadays when I need to boot into my small windows partition. Ubuntu FTW.

Acrobat Reader on Linux

[by Anonymous Coward]

I've appreciated that Adobe has provided Reader for Linux for quite some time now. Until I tried their latest a number of months ago (version 8? or 9?).

It insisted upon putting a bunch of worthless crap in my ~/.kde and ~/.local directories, overriding my MIME types and replacing KDE's PDF icons (which looked consistent with all the other KDE icons) with its own icons, which clearly were out of place.

Of course, it also decided to set itself as the preferred reader for PDFs, contrary to my preference. It would have been annoying, but bearable, had it asked me about this before it made invasive changes, but simply running the program was enough to wreak havoc.

So fuck you Adobe, I'll continue to use kpdf, which doesn't feel the need to take over my desktop. As an added bonus, kpdf doesn't have a million worthless plugins that slow down application startup, either.

Left out Top Ten Slideshows

[rocketjam (696072)]

What about "top ten slideshows" on big media websites that present their "top ten" on eleven or twelve separate pages, each filled with more ads and other distractions than the actual "content" you've been directed to via Slashdot?

Yeah, I know they're not "applications" but, the annoyance factor is right up there.

It's Not Always the Software Per Se

[FurtiveGlancer (1274746)]

Sometimes it's the exclusive distribution method or the update method that truly irks.

Google's Sketch-up Pro is available only by download. Not a problem in the US, but on a remote US base in Afghanistan? A CD/DVD option would have been most helpful.

As already pointed out above, updaters can be a significant issue even if the software itself is acceptable. The status quo should be maintained for settings, file associations and preferences, TYVM.

Advertise on the web and through the quality of your product, not via the update process.

The answer is right there in front of you

[HungWeiLo (250320)]

Look at the top of your window:

"The Most Annoying Software Out There - Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 5"

I didn't say it - the browser did!

Java update process needs fixing

[schwit1 (797399)]

Some of my users' add/remove programs have a half dozen separate Java installs. And they all install in separate folders.

Java(tm) 5 update 6
Java(tm) 5 update 11
Java(tm) 6 update 1
Java(tm) 6 update 3
Java(tm) 6 update 4
Java(tm) 6 update 6

worse than annoying for someone like me

[spirit_fingers (777604)]

Unfortunately, I'm the IT Manager for the ad agency of one of the most annoying programs mentioned in that article (I won't mention which one). So I'm in the unhappy position of having to install our client's software on all of our computers. Would I use that software if the company weren't our client? NO FUCKING WAY! If there is a hell for IT support people, I'm in it. I not only have to support this crapware, but I have to pretend that it's the greatest thing since oral sex.

Right on the money

[H0p313ss (811249)]

Usually I disagree with these rather non-technical whiners, but I found this to be right on the money this time. Besides, there's some wonderful British humor there:

Acrobat Reader
"a reputation for being as welcome as a flatulent camel in the kitchen"

Windows Update
We've been kind and not talked about Vista.

RealPlayer
"If this software turned up at your door, you'd call the police."
"... we were given software to install. 'Disable your firewall', it commanded. 'Drop dead', we replied."

Java
"Programming languages are like sewage plants: if the average user becomes aware of them, something's gone wrong."

Yahoo
"And yes, when I ask to exit the software, that's because I really want to, not because I'm having a crisis of doubt."

Flash
"There's nothing wrong with Flash, provided you don't use it to construct web sites where people want to find information..."

Flash! Aaaaaaa!

[Dachannien (617929)]

I'm really glad they mentioned Flash. It's become a horrible malware vector, which is largely Adobe's fault. But worse yet is how some web designers use Flash.

Flash is too often used for creating website navigation widgets, or worse yet, for encapsulating entire websites. And even worse than that are the horribly annoying Flash version-checker scripts, which demand that you will install or upgrade Flash before viewing this site, because "I spent fifteen minutes on those fancy Flash-based site nav buttons, and you damn well better look at them" even though virtually all of the site's actual content is in plain HTML.

What's more, I don't need or want a Flash widget to view a series of JPEGs. Just show me the damn images - I'm perfectly capable of clicking by myself to move on to the next one, thanks.

Resident processes for no reason!

[Hankapobe (1290722)]

Many programs have these resident services (Windows) that sit there and just take up memory and CPU for no reason.

For example: Quickbooks. Why does it have to have (IIRC) three services running EVEN IF QUICKBOOKS ITSELF IS NOT RUNNING!? One of them is for updates. The other two I have no idea, but all three sure bogged my system down. I uninstalled Quickbooks and it took Registry Mechanic to get rid of everything. I tell you with this and other problems I've had with Intuit, if I see that company's name on something , I refuse to buy it.

Back in my day, when we had to program in the snow, uphill both ways, we would check for updates upon startup AND allow the user to turn it off.

Folks, just because there is a feature for programs or cool way of doing something, does not mean it's a good design.

Now about Windows registry and the fact that it only grows.....Never mind. I need a drink.

My vote: The Browser

[postbigbang (761081)]

I know the history of it intimately. Because it wasn't well though through, it's a miserable user interface. Yes, it seems flexible, and it's nice that the W3 specs are there, but they're not well thought-through, either. Whether it's Java, php, or another language, the pallette called the 'browser' is the biggest, most anarchistic piece of junk I've ever seen. Plug-ins are great.... there are many good things. But the screen real estate, and the number of ways that it can be buggered are just insane. As a GUI, the browser totally sucks. If you don't believe what I'm saying, try to remember "The Frames Era".

A good UI shouldn't have to have users embedding markup language manually. It shouldn't have to trouble you about fonts, re-sizing your window widths. It shouldn't have ways that browser makers can bugger up wysiwyg information in so many ingenious ways.

Mark me as flamebait if you want, but the browser is a disaster, years after its invention, and constant reinvention.

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[SirGeek (120712)]

Adobe Reader - Using open source PDF reader "Evince Document Viewer" instead. Result? Software does not annoy.

For Linux, Agreed. But when is Evince going to work in Windows ? Oh. Never ?? So what choice does a person using windows have ?

Apple iTunes - Using open source music program "Amarok". Result? Software does not annoy (and works much better than iTunes as well).

For Linux, Agreed. But when is Amarok going to work in Windows or with people's iPods? Oh. Never ?? So what alternateive choice does a person using windows have ?

Windows Update - Using Genuine Linux Distro "Ubuntu". Result? No licensing restrictions, no DRM, no repeated system restarts, no service packs to fix the previous service pack, that fixed the previous service pack, that fixed months old critical bugs.

No repeated system restarts, but none ? What about when your kernel is updated ? What about VMWare needing to be recompiled once you HAVE rebooted ?

RealPlayer - Avoiding RealPlayer like the plague it is (using "Amarok" for the same functionality, if not the same file format). Result? No privacy leaks, no ads, no reporting back to Real on what I listen to or where I visit on the web.

See above comments for Amarok.

Java - Using Sun's Java without the Yahoo toolbar. Result? Java is reasonably well behaved. Looking forward to truly open-sourced Java in the near future.

True.

Yahoo - Use Yahoo's maps to check up on Google results. Use Yahoo throw-away email when I need to be a little bit stealthy. Otherwise avoid Yahoo.com like the plague it is. Result? Happy camper.

You are kidding right ? What do you do when you have a company that USES Yahoo for its "approved" IM provider ?

Norton Antivirus - Using upgraded OS "Linux" so that viruses are not a problem. Result? Viruses? I don't have no stinking viruses!

True. However if you do filesharing with Windows, you should consider something like Avast which has a free Windows AND Linux version.

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[unformed (225214)]

On Windows, use Foxit PDF Reader. It's not open-source, but they do have a free version for non-commerical purposes. It's fast, it's small, and they have it available in a ZIP so you don't have to run an installer.

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[pdusen (1146399)]

"Stop using Windows" isn't a bugfix.

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[theaceoffire (1053556)]

I don't like your flash solution, so here is mine: Firefox + Flash Block [mozilla.org].

I get all the benefits of no flash, but can still watch youtube and all the rest if I change my mind with no hassle.

Re:Did they mention linux firefox?

[Uncle Focker (1277658)]

In this very article, when I click the red arrows to go to the next page, they go backwards.

They don't for me and I've just tested it on 5 different boxes running Linux.

Plus the images? don't show up at all.

Are you running no script or something else that could be blocking them? They show up just fine again here.

Firefox is shit in linux.

You keep stating this and then giving examples that I can't reproduce on any available machine.

I have been using it for years and it sucks.

Bullshit. If you had such severe problems as you claim you'd have stopped using it unless you're just an idiot. Since you're just trolling, though, it matters not. Get some better material next time.