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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.'"
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.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Repeat after me:
AVG Free.
AVG Free.
AVG Free.
You should start to feel better soon.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
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.
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
I found the layout and navigation of that gallery pretty annoying.
--I'm not talking about dance lessons. I'm talking about putting a brick through the other guy's windshield.-
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?
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.
body massage!
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!
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.
Developers: We can use your help.
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.
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/
Best Firefox extension EVER. Works on Seamonkey, too, which is what I use at home.
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
Err.. EnableBalloonTips=0 anyone?
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.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
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!
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.
Or apt-get install msttcorefonts for debian/ubuntu users.
db
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
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.
Help protect civil rights from abuse by the TSA - visit TSA News Blog.
http://www.tsanewsblog.com
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.
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.
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/
And they had 64-bit support before AVG, that's why I switched.
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.
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.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
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.
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.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
I found this http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/2008/04/taming-avg-free-version-8.html useful to get AVG8 Free to not always signal a red exclamation mark when noting was wrong.
Artificial intelligence is the study of how to make real computers act like the ones in the movies.
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
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.
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.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
- 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"
Artificial intelligence is the study of how to make real computers act like the ones in the movies.
Amarok will be working on Windows soon, and since when does Amarok not support iPods?
Have you driven a fnord... lately?
You must wait a little bit before using this resource; please try again later.
\\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...
It was blocking port 80 *out*. What actually happened was that the transparent web proxy crashed, which is a very frequent occurrence.
I can help you with that. Grab the latest version of Firefox at Portable Apps -- 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!
"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." Congrats Kevin K.
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.
Eh, you could always disable the balloon pop-ups.
Use Sumatra PDF, or kpdf/whatever on Linux. Finally, an Adobe-free existence!
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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)
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.
Do you know where your towel is?
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.
There's a setting in T-bird for this: Tools->Options->Privacy->Anti-Virus->Allow anti-virus clients to quarantine individual incoming messages
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
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/
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.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
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.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
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.
Quack, quack.