What’s the worst program you have ever used?

If I came across a program I didn’t like, I quickly and simply un-installed it. I would try several similar program till I found one that worked the best. However, one I couldn’t replace and I was stuck with until they came out with a newer version was Windows 98. This OS continually crash my computer regardless of how many upgrades and patches I installed. It gave me more grief than any number of programs combined that I can think of and I do have a lot of them.

MS Word 2008 - What the hell was so bad about Word 2003? Changing the interface to use mostly pictures for navigation rather than a text based menu is simply daffy. Why is it so hard to learn thousands of Egyptian hieroglyps rather than a 26-letter alphabet? Maybe it’s meant to make the application more ‘accessible’. You know, for people who don’t know how to read? Oh, wait a minute! It’s a text editor! So maybe only those who can read would be likely to use it? Another pat on the back to the boys and girls in Redmond. Keep this up and you will eventually do us the favor of ensuring no one can actually use your software.

By far the worst program I have ever encountered was a disk cataloguing program, which name I cannot remember reliably — this was back in the Windows 3.1 days.. It had the neat “feature” that if you catalogued more than 512 diskettes [and I had close to a thousand at the time], it would pop an error message and destroy the database.

The first time this happened, I thought it was operator error, so I patiently recatalogued all the disks [a process which took up the better part of a week -- without the InterNet, I had a *lot* more time in those days]. By the time it happened a third time, I fired off an irate note to the shareware creator, who sheepishly conceded he had never thought that the database would contain so many disks, and that it was some sort of internal bug he would fix in future editions.

Although I have since had a reliable disk cataloguing program, my enthusiasm for cataloguing disks has certainly been dampened by this.

While I agree with Gerry about uninstalling programs I have downloaded and have not liked (too many of those to record here), there are some programs you have no choice but to use, for one reason or another. My usual reason for being ‘forced’ to use a program is that the program is the program of choice of my employer, division, or department.

While frequently you may be able to side step these choices (i.e., using Firefox instead of IE, or using Thunderbird instead of Outlook), some I have just been stuck with (Framemaker instead of Word…. although I know many people who swear by Frammaker, I only swear at it).

The absolute worse for me in recent times has been Telelogic DOORS. DOORS is simply a glorified spreadsheet program pretending to be an adanced Requirements Management tool.

Ok, I realize for most of you, you just went, “What the heck is that and why should I care?” For those of us in the Engineering or IT fields, Requirements Development and Management are essential processes in development. Requirements make sure that what we deliver is what the client (or in many cases, the marketing department) asked for. It tells the architects, developers, and engineers what needs to be built. It tells the test teams what they need to test for before OKing the system.

So why do I hate DOORS? Because for much less than the price of the tool, the amount of time it takes to learn and master the tool, and the manhours needed to maintain it, I could create a set of spreadsheets in Excel and use any version control system (clearcase, MKS, etc…) and get the same functionality. The only benefit I see to using DOORS is that management gets to say they are using a state-of-the-art Requirements Management tool. Unfortunately, this is a sad commentary on the ’state-of-the-art’ for such tools.

Microsoft Windows, any version, especially from 95-Vista.

There is lots of bad software out there but Adobe Elements 3.0 sticks in my mind because Adobe should have known better. I hated the interface. I imagine they have improved subsequent versions but I won’t even try them.

The worst ‘program’ I have ever used is Windows ME. I have had to reformat it aprox every 18 months. Now I use it as a basic server for my other two computers. to transfer files an such. M$ should give us certified CD owners a rebate for their embarrassment.

By far the worst program is Symantec Security Suite 2002 up to 2006. I have made a nice living from removing or fixing problems this program has created. Symantec had to create a utility just to remove all the services and thousands of files scattered across the pc. The fact they bought their popularity through oem deals with almost every pc maker on earth makes me ill.

The worst promgram that i have ever used has got to be microsofts virtual PC. probs just me but it seems to always stop half way through the instalation of the OS. I have tried everythign to try make it work but it just isn’t having it. I have given it over a gb of ram, lots of hdd space, large cpu alication, even tryied it with different OS’s and CD drives. :S so i just stick with more than one computer now. Hoping to get a mac mini super drive soon :]