What is the worst computer program you have ever used?

[StillMcfuu]

A couple come to mind.

Windows ME was horrendous, it was highlighted by Windows 2000 and NT which were right around the same time and were fantastic.

IBM As400 (depends on its usage) its a pretty common back end that many of you probably use. I've seen it when its great, but my current company uses it for ticket and scheduling and its way over its head in this scenario, just a nightmare to deal with.

Older version of ATI's control panel equivalent. ATI/AMD have historical issues with drivers, but I remember their control panel program from 2010 ish was so bad it chased me away from ATI. It constantly crashed and if you were running something it would take that program with it 5 out of 10 times. It was built on .net Framework which had its own issues as well.

TeamSpeak, ny guild started raid with a guild that uses TS. I found it amusing that they used such an outdated program so I went along with it. That lasted for about 1 raid until we forced them to just use Discord. Discord has its own faults, but at least you aren't getting a sub standard experience from a program that still functions like a 2000 era Napster chat room, all while being spammed with messages about upgrading for better voice quality or concurrent users on the server (which I believe requires pay as well).

Honorable mentions:
ITunes: I had to use it maybe a year ago to back up my work phone. I remember constantly struggling with it years ago to get songs on my nano. Just a miserable program, I doubt its changed that much.

Old outlook/default windows mail.

[Sorshen]

I hated using Slack for work. Older versions of Microsoft Office apps get a honorable mention due to an endless stream of corrupted files over the years.

[Zergy]

Regard, it's a library management software used in school libraries here. It's incredibly outdated and looks like Windows 95.

[Soon-TM]

Yeah...I will +1 for McAfee. Panda still takes my #1 spot for shittiest anti-virus I've ever dealt with, but McAfee gets second place there. I think it generally comes pre-installed on Dell PC's, or at least it did for the handful of friends/relatives I've helped with PC problems (most of them either had a long-expired 90-day trial version, or they paid for a couple of years subscription when they started getting those "YOU ARE NO LONGER PROTECTED!!!111111" messages). Maybe the business/corporate version is better, but I can't say I'm a fan.

I'd give the "crappiest antivirus ever" badge to Avast. Seriously, screw that disgusting piece of slow ass spyware.

Oh, and the internal software used by BestBuy to document stuff like online orders, refunds and other stuff related to customer support. Buggy af and slooooooooooow as molasses.

[Gilvain]

definitely Norton, 100%

I absolutely loathe trying to remove it from new PCs for relatives...yeah, sadly I'm the one who always gets stuck with that task. Sigh.

iTunes was a good mention earlier in this thread, too. It used to drive me crazy until I completely swore off of it.

[schwarzkopf]

In the last 10 years - iTunes for Windows and Twitch for Windows.

That excludes programs I didn't use much because they were too bad to use.

- - - Updated - - -

definitely Norton, 100%

Has been no reason to use Norton for several years... so at least you can dump that.

[cparle87]

There is also this.

You could uninstall it, run the removal tools to clear up any other traces that they find, run one of those "super ultra zomg secure erase that makes 400 passes" on your hard drive, beat the shit out of the hard drive + the rest of your PC with a sledgehammer, run over what's left of that with a steamroller a few times, vacuum/bag up what's left of that, and launch it into the sun, and then build a new PC with a fresh OS install, and somehow, various Norton components would be there. It's like one of those horror movie monsters that won't die and keeps coming back no matter what you do to it.

That made me laugh real hard irl.

[Gilvain]

- - - Updated - - -


Has been no reason to use Norton for several years... so at least you can dump that.

Oh, trust me, I cleanse any PC with Norton on it with fire...I hate that so many pre-built PCs come with that shit pre-installed. That is the real issue.

I build my own PCs from scratch. However, I don't get that luxury when dealing with relatives who "just want something they can plug in" and don't really care...it's a shame.

[poptya]

Steam in the first month after it launched

[Tommi]

If any of you have worked for DSG ( PC World, Currys etc) in the UK, then it has to be Eclipse.

Fuck me that software was old when I worked there in 2007, and they still use it. Even worse was the fact that Business centre also had to use it, along with their own program. Doing a business sale was just a pain in the arse, coz you also had to go through Eclipse with the sales order. I eventually just stoped doing business sales.

[Zergin8r]

Citrix, <-- fuck this fucking ancient piece of crap shoved down our throats because some Big ISP's wanted to cut corners a decade ago.
Doesn't help that the majority of TC's are run by glorified accountants that think cost management = build one server in the arse end of fkn nowhere and link EVERYTHING AND THEIR MOTHER to it.

But seriously FUCK CITRIX.


you want to know how sucky this pos is...

It has it's own urban dictionary page

Citrix
Better known as "Shitrix", this thin client system lags like you wouldn't believe, and loses your data and locks your session if your program crashes. Which it does. Frequently. Can't even run the same program twice.

You often have to wait up to 10 seconds for keypresses to register when connected to the servers.
"I've got a crashed session on Citrix. Need admin to close it for me."

"'Shitrix' is lame, I want a proper system."

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Citrix

Yep this + avaya... early 90s style programs just to save a few $. Probably costs more to pay workers during the times it is down than to just upgrade honestly. I was probably paid 1 full day a week where I was waiting for either the ability to log in or just having the system generally crash / refuse to open other apps. Also once we moved to wfh this spring.... they sent us systems that also loaded windows through the server so if there was even a slight hiccup in the connection you were down 3-4 days till tech could reset your account.

[LemonDemonGirl]

ITunes without a doubt. Total trash.

Also if you ever had a PC that had that McAfee shit all on it... my god total trash..

Seriously, fuck McAfee. Why is Microsoft even allowing that to be installed on their computers? Or ROG?

Just let me download memes in peace lol

[loadedaxe]

McAfee's and Nortons.

[monkfailz]

internet explorer
itunes
mcafee
msn messenger
yahoo messenger

[Selastan]

Origin. It would be...tolerable if EA made their own digital hub like Steam. But not if they:

A: made one that ran like ass.

B: Continue to sell their games on Steam, but require it be downloaded or registered on Origin later.

It baffles me why it was created. It must have COST them money, considering they had to pay for servers, maintenance, and the fact that lots of people are turned off from buying their games because they have to go through their shitty store.

[Exkrementor]

Skype - Voip program that doesnt even have push to talk? Get outa here.

Also Discord. Terrible sound quality, no dedicated servers, constantly changes input devices on itself, the volume of everyone in voice is all over the place every time, very high push to talk delay so that your first word is usually not being heard.

Also also epic games launcher. You guys wanna be Steam? Then maybe copy at least some useful features from it. Bandwith limit, reviews, dynamic game bundle prices etc etc. Its so shit.

[Souflikar]

Microsoft Silverlight was a complete shi* show.

[Selastan]

Oh, trust me, I cleanse any PC with Norton on it with fire...I hate that so many pre-built PCs come with that shit pre-installed. That is the real issue.

I build my own PCs from scratch. However, I don't get that luxury when dealing with relatives who "just want something they can plug in" and don't really care...it's a shame.

Where does this hate come from? I use Norton and it works fine on my laptop and phone. Even comes with a free VPN.

[Schmeebs]

Eclipse IDE

[Twoddle]

Microsoft Silverlight was a complete shi* show.

Had many hours of fun converting my WPF projects to Silverlight in order to run in the browser. Silverlight was like a crippled version of WPF because of restricted security permissions so you had to find workarounds for many things. It never really took off though like flash did and people were unwilling to install yet another "dubious" plugin. Then came HTML5 making Silverlight mostly redundant. Now we have stuff like Blazor for web apps in C#.