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]

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:Norton Products...

[The Living Fractal]

Repeat after me:

AVG Free.
AVG Free.
AVG Free.

You should start to feel better soon.

Honestly, these problems are solveable

[It doesn't come easy]

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Preinstalled software bundles - Using upgraded OS "Linux" so that preinstalled software bundles are not a problem. Result? Preinstalled software bundles? I don't have no stinking preinstalled software bundles!

Outlook/Exchange - Using "Evolution". The jury is still out on whether "Evolution" is worth using verses online calendar and scheduling web sites.

Flash - Using...nothing. Avoiding flash based websites like the plague they are. Results? Fast web page loading, no privacy issues, no vector for malware installation, only see web pages that actually provide links to relevant content.

That page was annoying

[Todd Fisher]

I found the layout and navigation of that gallery pretty annoying.

Re:Did they mention linux firefox?

[Uncle Focker]

Sounds like user error to me. I've been using Firefox on Linux for years with no issues beyond the hacks it takes to get 32-bit Flash to work in 64-bit Firefox. What exactly are you problems?

Re:Norton Products...

[gravyface]

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.

Takes one to know one

[Roger W Moore]

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!

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[BadAnalogyGuy]

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.

My vote: HP

[truthsearch]

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:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[Oxy the moron]

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

This one needs some clarification... Remember not to buy your music from the iTunes store or using Amarok doesn't help much. Buy from a vendor that does not use DRM-laden music downloads (such as Amazon), use Amarok, and annoyances are no more!

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[gmuslera]

Flash- Using NoScript to decide which pages/sites could show me flash content. Only see what i want,

Re:Did they mention linux firefox?

[pdusen]

If Firefox had widespread problems like this, it wouldn't be installed by default on so many distros. Either you broke something or you're a troll.

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[theaceoffire]

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.

Flashblock FTW

[snarfies]

Too many websites lean on Flash too heavily. You'll have a lot of trouble getting by without it on a lot of websites. Its obnoxious, and what's more, there's more and more Flash-based advertising appearing on various websites (yes, I'm glaring at you too, Slashdot). But there is a way to make Flash be a little more well-behaved: http://flashblock.mozdev.org/ [mozdev.org]

Best Firefox extension EVER. Works on Seamonkey, too, which is what I use at home.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[Ollabelle]

So don't delete it. Just run msconfig.exe and disable it.

It's for multisession CD-R.

[tepples]

Why do I have to stick my CD in the drive before it starts to convert (copy)files?

So that the CD mastering software can know if you want to add an additional session to an existing CD-R.

Java update process needs fixing

[schwit1]

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

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[unformed]

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

[Corporate Troll]

Java -- Also it really is easy to disable the update scheduler (jusched.exe). In Windows, simply go to the control panel, select the Java Console (sorry, I'm not on Windows, so I do this by memory), go to the "Updates" tab and just say "Never". Java will never bother you ever again.

Disabling the auto-update of Acrobat Reader is much harder (=less intuitive). By definition I disable auto-updates of my applications. I decied when to upgrade what. Besides, those auto-updates rarely work correctly when running "Limited User", which is what I do. (Strange, yes, I know, but it works and it's not that hard to do)

Re:ARGHSFARGH!

[comm2k]

Err.. EnableBalloonTips=0 anyone?

Re:Bloody Adobe Reader

[MBCook]

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.

Re:Norton Products...

[Hankapobe]

My brother in law "all of a sudden" lost his internet connection on his computer. After testing the connection, I ran some diagnostics. Guess what? Norton AV was blocking port 80.

But wait! it gets better. You cannot uninstall it through the remove programs. You have to go into safe mode and uninstall there. Otherwise, you'll just get error messages - regardless if you use Norton's uninstall or Windows.

What a kick in the balls!

Re:Did they mention linux firefox?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, you can just install those fonts if you get them. I'm sure you can google for them, and they are in the repositories if you are using Ubuntu.

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[ChrisMaple]

Conporate quarterly conference calls are generally available only in Windows Media Player and RealPlay formats. Under Linux, this means RealPlay only. Fortunately, Linux RealPlay seems pretty benign.

Re:Did they mention linux firefox?

[clarkn0va]

...Windows fonts are not available on Linux...

http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]

Or apt-get install msttcorefonts for debian/ubuntu users.

db

Re:For those who use Adobe

[CelticWhisper]

No.

I'm sorry, but as nice as some of Foxit's features were, the two things that irritated me about it were first that you still had to pay to get the full featureset, and second that it kept altering the goddamn context menu option. "Foxit Reader, Best Reader for Everyday Use!"

How's 'bout just "Foxit Reader." *Regedit*

2 reboots later...

"Foxit Reader, Best Reader for Everyday Use!"

No, your name is "Foxit Reader." That's...fucking...it. You don't tell me what you are, I tell you what you are on MY computer. And stop expanding out my context menu with a name 3 times longer than any of the other options contained therein.

*Regedit*

2 reboots later... Ad nauseam.

Try SumatraPDF if you just need to read documents. It's super-lightweight, which does unfortunately mean it lacks some features of Foxit, Evince, and others, but I find that I'm usually only interested in reading documents anyway and for that, Sumatra is excellent.

Resident processes for no reason!

[Hankapobe]

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.

Re:Norton Products...

[AdmiralAl]

I couldn't agree more. Disk Doctor for DOS was a fantastic program. Useful for everything from fixing corrupt files to editing "saved game" files. Once Norton was taken over by Symantec, it was all down hill from there. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've had to remove Norton Internet Security from people's systems because it was completely killing system performance.

Re:Norton Products...

[KlomDark]

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:A hearty welcome to our latest new member

[jank1887]

i have to disable it each update, which sucks, but OOo is at least painless to disable. If I recall correctly, it's all in the context menu. but it should figure out from the previous version whether or not to have it turned on for an upgrade.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[Keruo]

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.

It didn't say "unsolvable problems of computing"

[Moraelin]

Well, it didn't say it was about unsolvable problems of modern computing, but rather about annoying programs. That alternatives exist, I think for at least one of them, even ZD mentions one. I guess, if anything, the existance of those alternatives, just drives home the point about how needlessly annoying those programs are. You know, the "what the hell were they _thinking_" factor.

Re:Norton Products...

[dreamchaser]

Huh? I use AVG Free on one of my machines at home and it doesn't 'kidnap' my system. Things run just fine while it checks for updates.

Re:Flash! Aaaaaaa!

[oahazmatt]

I can only blame the web designers so much for that practice.

I ditched my last professional web design job. It was for a paintball site. I presented samples of effective navigation from other sites (some related, some not) and had a discussion about directing visitor traffic and what needs to be emphasized.

Then he starts showing me this flash app that resembles the Windows XP start menu, where all the options are buried. Whenever you click on one, it would just load a different HTML page...in a new window.

I must have tried to reason with him for an hour. I tried to explain to him how I (in a professional capacity) did not feel it was beneficial and would turn visitors away. He eventually told me I didn't know what I was talking about, and started showing me even more "better-looking" sites, all contaminated with flash menus that didn't even work together.

I had the chance to walk away from that job. Not all web designers do. If your project manager wants flash, either you can do it, or his nephew can.

Taming AVG Free

[Forget4it]

I found this http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/2008/04/taming-avg-free-version-8.html [blogspot.com] useful to get AVG8 Free to not always signal a red exclamation mark when noting was wrong.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[gaspyy]

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.

Amazon DRM-Free

[flahwho]

I think all of the MP3 downloads from Amazon are now DRM-free.
Link to current header:
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/digital/music/mp3-storefront-logo-0108a._V16570869_.jpg

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[FredFredrickson]

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:Update apps...

[EvilIdler]

People often also integrate Sparkle into OS X apps, giving them a nifty updater
which checks for updates and handles downloading & installing with next to no
effort from the programmers. I love it. It's so widespread there is barely any
need for a central package manager.

I'd love to see a central uninstaller for all those things which aren't app-bundles,
though. Plugins and instruments are scattered all over the system, with no common
signature in the files so the OS could remove the parts automatically.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[Lumpy]

Want to know WTF? What if you DONT want to register their software.. Final Cut pro suite. I have to do the mac equivalent of registry hacking to turn off those stupid "register now?" dialogs that show up every 5 loads. The video editor stations are NEVER going to be on the net, I will NOT register them , BITE ME!

There are a lot of things they get right, and a LOT of things they get wrong. They do tend to get more right than wrong though.

Re:Norton Products...

[FredFredrickson]

I've seen this, and can confirm this behavior, but I think you're a bit mixed up... I work in computer repair, and yes, by default it should block port 80, unless you're running a webserver.

What you meant to say, is that it blocks internet access- and this is true. Norton Internet Security's default install would block any and all internet access. I think they finally put out an update that fixed it, but during one or two months in 2006ish/2007 we had about 15 computers come in with the same symptoms - no internet. Took us very little time to figure out that it was the NIS firewall's default settings. Bloody stupid if you ask me.

foxItPDF fixIt

[Forget4it]

Two grumbles for the latest FoxItPDF:

• the icons don't look red enough to be pdf.
• It insists in changing the register value for .fdf every time it launches. So if you like to create a new folder by Right-Click N F it no longer works.

Anyone know how to banish shellNew permanently from the Reg? Temporary solution is (last line sets the icon back to adobe's)

REGEDIT4
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.fdf\ShellNew]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FoxitReader.Document\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Acrobat 7.0\\Reader\\AcroRd32.exe,1"

Regarding Amarok

[cparker15]

Amarok will be working on Windows soon, and since when does Amarok not support iPods [kde.org]?

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[maxume]

Also, Flashblock. It just inserts a box with a play button wherever there is flash content.

Re:ARGHSFARGH!

[Anonymous Coward]

\\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\

Create DWORD called EnableBalloonTips and call it 0.

Is there a similar setting in gnome/ubuntu? The balloons there are just as annoying, and I haven't found any way to turn them off besides running a chmod -x on some executable or another...

Re:Norton Products...

[Anonymous Coward]

It was blocking port 80 *out*. What actually happened was that the transparent web proxy crashed, which is a very frequent occurrence.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[nawcom]

assuming you're runnning teatimer since every windows user should, permanently reject permissions for qttray to get added to the startup apps in the registry the next time it tries to.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[colourmyeyes]

Edit the registry and nuke all the autostart crap:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Delete entries at will (you might want to back it up first).

Re:The answer is right there in front of you

[Guanine]

I can help you with that. Grab the latest version of Firefox at Portable Apps [portableapps.com] -- I would have gone crazy at work long ago without Firefox Portable. The way it works is it installs software to a USB drive, i.e. only to one directory. You miss out on browsing history and page caching (to avoid wearing out your USB memory), but I've used it for 9 months without problems or headaches. Anyhow, I put my FF Portable on a USB stick and start it off that each morning. If you can't mount USB drives, you can run the software off your desktop. If you can't access that website, you could attach the exe file to an email to yourself, renamed to something like firefox.ppt -- enjoy Firefox at work!

Re:Norton Products...

[BigDogCH]

"I'm really hoping Backup Exec and Netbackup don't go the same way."

Too late. We just rolled back to an older version of Backup Exec because of constant crashing in the latest version, along with horrid performance, and overall unreliability. Symantec support is useless. The new version runs dead slow on a fairly powerful machine as well. If anyone can recommend some software that works with a tandberg storage loader, let me know.

The best user quote from the symantec forum (one of many)......."Unfortunately, I've rebuilt the server because 11d pretty much ruined my life. [symantec.com]" Congrats Kevin K.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[greetings programs]

You can avoid installing QT by using QT Alternative here http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm [free-codecs.com] All the goods without the bloatware.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[p0tat03]

Most times I 'sleep' the computer I need to restart. Multiple monitors at work? I need to restart. Two days of intense document construction? "Out of memory" and I need to restart. After 2 days the cursor becomes jumpy, I need to restart and the list goes on and on and on.

May I suggest that this may be a hardware issue? I run a MBP with Leopard and have had none of these problems. In fact multiple monitors is one of the great things about running a Mac :) It just works, and it remembers all your settings to boot. Connect it to your work external monitor and blam, one desktop, connect to home, blam, another. I've also seen problems on MacBook hinges that prevent proper sleep, maybe this is the case.

Take it into your local Apple Store, this just ain't right.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[Dahamma]

It's a piece of shit program that happens to be required/automatically installed with iTunes (which is slightly less annoying software in itself that unfortunately is a must have for those little trendy devices called iPods...

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[Zanth_]

I use Windows at work, I have a Debian server and a Ubuntu desktop at home and I own a MBP dual booting Leopard and XP SP2. Windows is easily the most frustrating out of the ones I use but my response is mainly an enquiry regarding your mac.

I run dual monitors (24" Dell) with my MBP, I run VM Ware Fusion with 1 GB of RAM allocated to the machine (I run a 2G MBP so it is capped at 2 Gigs of Ram). I have Fink installed and when compiling I can still have the VM up and all the while not having any stability issues. I hardly have any updates (and I check weekly). I've never experienced nor heard of anyone in my circle (we are about 20) who have had issues with Leopard. Despite it being a bit sluggish compared to a well setup Ubuntu install or a stripped down XP SP2, I would say it is more stable than the other two over time. I do get the "sleep" problem you mention though, but that seems to be endemic across laptops and OS'. For whatever reason, no one has perfected awaking from sleep yet.

I'm wondering if your laptop might not have some serious issues. What you describe seems out of the ordinary. You might want to send it off for a checkup. Perhaps you have dying RAM? I've never had to restart Leopard safe for a major update (usually a security patch) and certainly never when plugging in a second monitor. I plug it in and it just works.

Sure, myself and the 20 folks I work with are a small sample size and therefore this is mostly anecdotal, but just in case, you may want to get it looked at.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[Cannelloni]

This has never happened to me, and I have been using OS X since OS X 10.2 Jaguar (but Panther, Tiger and Leopard have been even more solid). You probably just have bad RAM. Use Apple Hardware Test (extended test mode) to verify that nothing is wrong. It has got to be a hardware problem. Or why don't you bring it to an Apple authorized service provider if the machine is still under warranty?

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[MPAB]

Many cameras take videos in .MOV instead of .AVI; Joe User is told he needs to download QT in order to view his homemade videos and he does.

OTOH, editing a .MOV file with QT pro takes 1/10 of the time needed to edit it with most non-dedicated video editors.

Re:Norton Products...

[TheLinuxSRC]

If you are using Thunderbird/Mozilla mail this is a fairly common occurence with any virus scanner. Apparently these scanners are smart enough to be able to quarantine single emails from Outlook but cannot do it for a file format that has been used for 10+ years . You can restore the inbox (after making a copy of your current inbox and deleting the associated .msf file). You can then delete the offending email and copy the email from the inbox that was used during the interrum back into your restored inbox.

Re:ARGHSFARGH!

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh, you could always disable the balloon pop-ups [microsoft.com].

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[darkwhite]

Sumatra PDF [kowalczyk.info] kicks Foxit's ass. And it's open source. Another piece of shitty bloatware (Adobe Reader) bites the dust.

Re:Bloody Adobe Reader

[darkwhite]

Use Sumatra PDF [kowalczyk.info], or kpdf/whatever on Linux. Finally, an Adobe-free existence!

Re:ARGHSFARGH!

[Antero]

I feel your pain... Try this, it will disable all pop-up balloons, but I find that the lesser of two evils.
(taken from Microsof Support [microsoft.com])

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
2. Navigate to the following subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. Right-click the right pane, create a new DWORD value, and then name it EnableBalloonTips.
4. Double-click this new entry, and then give it a hexadecimal value of 0.
5. Quit Registry Editor. Log off Windows, and then log back on.

These steps disable all Notification Area balloon tips for this user. There is no way to disable balloon tips for specific programs only.

Re:Windows woes

[Koiu Lpoi]

Unified, Trustable source for updates on Windows? Are you kidding me? I hate to sound like a troll, but you've been living in a very small world if you think the logistics of that are even remotely possible in even the next 5 years. Windows has orders of magnitude more software written and used every day than Linux, and even Linux package managers have their share of problems.

And, strangely enough, most Windows users aren't WoW players. Makes me wonder why you would think that, frankly. In fact, most Windows users aren't even gamers beyond Solitaire. Seems odd then, that they don't spend time and energy trying to install something on their computer that's used by less than 5% of users, to a system that requires new paradigms and won't run the software in the way they're used to. But no, it must be WoW.

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[Taibhsear]

> You can buy stuff from iTunes in Amarok?
No, but you can buy from magnatune.com. Disclaimer: I haven't, I prefer thepiratebay.org and isohunt.com.

Currently, no. Will there be? yes.
Remember kids, a little research goes a long way...

From Amarok's website:

The Amarok Team is happy to announce that Amarok 2 will come with native support for the itunes music store. Utilizing the new Scriptable Service framework, Amarok developers have utilized a development model known as creative backwards engineering to develop a C# script and obtain full compatability with the itunes music store. This support is already availible in our subversion sources, and will be released in the next version of Amarok. As a warning, there appears to be a small bug currently where users are not charged for the music they purchase and download. We are working dillegently to fix this problem, and will commit a fix as soon as possible. Thank you for flying Amarok!

Re:Norton Products...

[Nimey]

There's a setting in T-bird for this: Tools->Options->Privacy->Anti-Virus->Allow anti-virus clients to quarantine individual incoming messages

Re:Update apps...

[bbdd]

I agree, the Linux approach is way better.

But, I have found the Secunia Software Inspector a great help in keeping my Windows boxes more up-to-date.

It doesn't cover every program in the world, but every major one I use.

https://psi.secunia.com/ [secunia.com]

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[Lisandro]

Yeah, and the Safari "update".

Don't forget the infamous iTunes "update" as well. Like QT by itself wasn't annoying enough.

Re:Update apps...

[Bert64]

Most package managers offer the facility to use multiple repositories, apt supports it, and gentoo has it's overlays... So if something isn't covered by the main tree, there could well be third party packages and you will still have the automatic update facility.
Occasionally there are packages which don't have any native packages, but these are the minority unless you run a really obscure distribution... Anyone writing software for linux should really provide packages, or have someone else contribute them.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[hudsucker]

Jeez, do guys you turn off lights by hitting the switch with a hammer? Why not just use QuickTime's control panel to tell it you don't want an icon in the notification area? Then it will never return.

1. Right-click notification area icon, select Settings.
2. Select the Advanced tab.
3. Under Tray Icon, turn off the option "Install QuickTime icon in system tray".

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[Anonymous Coward]

Because knowing how to use a computer properly gives you room to complain. You only needed to edit one registry key or disable the service. Your shorcomings do not consititute malicious software. Sure quicktime sucks ass, but it like any other software can be made to run the way you like it to. You just can't check every box on the installation because you aren't sure. Belive it or not it is only one small check box on the install that decides if QT will get started on boot.

Re:A hearty welcome to our latest new member

[Phroggy]

Which user's preferences files should be removed when you delete an application? Just yours? Everybody's? I almost never want an application's preferences files to be deleted when I uninstall an application, because I usually intend to reinstall the latest version and I want it to keep all my settings; occasionally I'll try a new app and decide I don't like it, but a few wayward preferences files for these lying around don't bother me too much (although admittedly it would be nice if there were an easy way to clean them up).

What if the application was never copied to the Applications folder in the first place - should preferences be deleted if you delete an application from the Desktop? What if I create an Applications folder on a separate volume or partition, and install certain applications there?

What if I have two versions of an application installed? I've got both Firefox 2 and the latest Firefox 3 beta, happily coexisting; when I delete Firefox 2 I sure as hell don't want it to delete my preferences for Firefox 3.

Having said all of that, for applications that come as an Installer package (because they're not self-contained in an application bundle), it'd be awfully nice to have an uninstall option for them.

Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable

[cha5on]

Actually, Amarok is already working in Windows. While it's not ready for general use, information on the tech preview can be found at http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/583-Windows-Binaries-of-Amarok-2-Tech-Preview.html [kde.org] Also, I and I'm sure many others have had iPods working with Amarok just fine for years, so I'm not sure what you're talking about there.

Seconded...

[msimm]

I got just about everyone I know hooked on AVG then after having a few issues with performance (can be a dog) and undetected viruses (!!) I got hooked on Avast.

I'd stop a little short of *praising* their interface (two taskbar icons by default?) but the price is right (free, for home use) and it works like you'd hope for something defending your desktop.

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[mrraven]

Here are some links to show this is not just me BTW:

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=5&threadID=260482&messageID=2563323 [cnet.com]

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/638297.html [whirlpool.net.au]

Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes)

[toddestan]

Because the icon is only a symptom , the real problem is all the worthless processes Quicktime spawns. While that option does get rid of the icon, that's all it does.