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The 5 most annoying programs on your PC

downloadsquad.com — Elephantware. That is what we are talking about. Bloated programs that make brand new PCs boot like Pentium 2s with 64 MBs of RAM. This is software that causes your screen to freeze while it works, consumes enough system resources to display a reminder box letting you know there is a new, even bigger, version available for download. Software ...

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 1, 2008

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  • DevastatorIIC, on 01/01/2008, -5/+610To be fair, Acrobat Reader 8 is way better than 7, but Foxit is also great.

    I nominate everything made by Symantec. Symantec Corporate Antivirus, their lightest-weight antivirus suite, uses 112 MB of RAM just on bootup. Yes, Symantec, I want you to use at least 1/5th of my ***** RAM.

    PC Decrapifier is a great program for uninstalling all the ***** that comes pre-installed on consumer machines.
  • Wiini, on 01/01/2008, -58/+403(Patiently waits for the obvious "why isnt' Windows on that list" comment from some random linux flamer who cries while watching '40 year old virgin')
  • ani625, on 01/01/2008, -3/+278Norton, i hate it.
  • inactive, on 01/01/2008, -3/+218they forgot anything made by Symantec.

    i thought it was a shoe-in after that "Bloated programs that make brand new PCs boot like Pentium 2s with 64 MBs of RAM" comment
  • foshizol, on 01/01/2008, -0/+199I Dugg you up for mentioning Symantec. Between work and my home business half my life is spent uninstalling that *****.
  • SeBBBe, on 01/01/2008, -34/+216iTunes is great on Mac OS X, dunno why it sucks so much on Windows..
  • inactive, on 01/01/2008, -6/+163replacments:
    1) Foxit Reader
    2) Amarok ( Soon for windows)
    3) Amarok ( Soon for windows )
    4) Firefox
    5) Thunderbird

    No more worries
  • Bender4Pharoah, on 01/01/2008, -14/+160#1 on my list would be Quicktime. The damn thing asks me 10 times a day if I want to "upgrade" to iTunes. Everyone, please stop embedding Quicktime movies in your websites so I can uninstall Quicktime and leave it uninstalled!
  • renegadeafk, on 01/01/2008, -6/+134Dugg for mentioning iTunes, that program is so bloated and slow on windows, Brings even the fastest computers to a crawl, really poor quality on apples part, they really need to fix the windows version.
  • double051, on 01/01/2008, -4/+110McAfee
  • theojanke, on 01/01/2008, -1/+91Symantec, Norton, McAfee. Same ***** different basket.
  • NeoSporin, on 01/01/2008, -2/+86Has everyone forgotten about Bonzi Buddy?
  • AndrewDB, on 01/10/2008, -22/+103Dugg you up for the sheer fact of mentioning Foxit reader. That little program is amazing.
  • Rhino2, on 01/01/2008, -3/+83Or anything Apple on Win32. Quicktime is a ***** hog too and glitches all the time. That and their ***** Auto installer is kind of a dick. Poppping up all the time asking to update. thridly, why does Quicktime need an icon on my desktop, start menu, quick launch and program tray? Holy ***** ***** man, who the ***** runs quicktime manually and even if they did, do they really need 4 god dam shortcuts all over the ***** place and load it automatically [by default] on boot? Jesus Mary Christ. ***** you apple. ***** you.
  • mattr12345, on 01/01/2008, -1/+81Though i love firefox, it is a bit of a RAM hogger i must admit
  • l0rdn1k0n, on 01/01/2008, -9/+86iTunes isn't bad on a Mac, but it is really bad on a PC.

    *prepares for bury*
  • pcpimpster, on 01/01/2008, -2/+75"Why anyone would put a file in pdf form is beyond me." - You must not understand that PDF is one of the most popular open and free defacto formats in the business world for exchanging documents.
    Next time just type "install Foxit", leave the PDF format alone. Acrobat does NOT equate to PDF, it is just a client app that can open PDFs.

  • donnydarko, on 01/01/2008, -31/+101windows media player?
  • flux1, on 01/01/2008, -5/+69If you are going to troll windows at least go with whats popular to hate and say #6 Vista
  • Bahimiron, on 01/01/2008, -1/+64I like Firefox way more than IE, but even it can end up becoming a resource hog.

    I'd like a really simple, light web reader. 'Course, then I'd be bitching because it doesn't have tabs or remember my passwords or keep my cookies or run Googlechat etc etc etc.
  • canthraxp, on 01/01/2008, -0/+59Acrobat sucks, and it's updater dual-sucks. I remember downloading a full update of 1xx MB, and the installation failed for some reason, and, instead of trying to reinstall what was locally, it started downloading AGAIN, without my consent, happening almost 4 times with random errors that annoyed the crap out of me. I deactivated every update feature, yet it contacted the mothership and started downloading again a month later. Thanks Foxit.
  • oneoverzero, on 01/01/2008, -0/+54VLC is an amazing RP (and everything else) alternative.
  • slayerab, on 01/01/2008, -2/+54I trie to beg a friend out of paying for a new subscription to Norton antivirus, but of course he didn't listen. And he still wonders why his computer is so slow
  • tidu, on 01/01/2008, -2/+53that's what she said
  • royalboyle, on 01/01/2008, -6/+57From what I've heard, the problem with iTunes on Windows is that much of the framework it uses is built into OS X and not into WIndows. While the framework is already running on OS X before you even launch iTunes, on Windows iTunes has to load all of that framework, quicktime, etc when you launch the program. It's really quite a kludge on Windows and hurts Apple's image IMHO. Most people's first impression of Apple software is unfortunately this ported POS.
  • Mortiferous, on 01/01/2008, -1/+44Yeah, at tech support for my college, we uninstall norton/symantec before we even work on a machine. Its just standard procedure there.
  • xla76, on 01/01/2008, -1/+42Windows Media Player? - Compared to iTunes wmp is freaking awesome!
  • Jones82, on 01/01/2008, -0/+41I'll have what he's having
  • j1ggy, on 01/01/2008, -12/+50Any of Microsoft's memory hogging Messenger versions are at the top of my list.
  • Tanktunker, on 01/01/2008, -19/+56Read the article before the comments.
  • jakem1, on 01/01/2008, -1/+37Because Apple are incapable of writing a decent application for Windows and always have been. Quicktime has always been like a virus on Windows too and their constant refusal to simply use Windows visual styles is infuriating.

    I guess the final Safari for Windows release has just been delayed while Apple's guys find new ways to make their software suck even more in Windows.
  • Takteek, on 01/01/2008, -3/+38*slides up from bottom right*
    Urgent Attention: 3 Items are affecting your status! Windows firewall is turned off! Auto-protect is turned off! Automatic updates are turned off! If you close this it will pop up again exactly when you don't want it to.
  • xevidentx, on 01/01/2008, -1/+35I think apple intentionally makes their software suck on windows so they can get the masses to complain how slow and crappy windows is, while its really their own software. think about it!
  • foofightrs777, on 01/01/2008, -1/+35I was just about to comment that this article would have been well served by listing some good alternatives. I like your list excpet I would add a couple of apps.

    Foobar is a great lightweight media player/manager. (and available now.) Also, it can be skinned if the fugliness scares you away.
    Real Alternative is a great replacement for Realplayer (as Quicktime Alternative is for Quicktime)
    I would also add Opera for web browser. I don't personally use it but it has always seemed snappy on other people's machines.
  • l0rdn1k0n, on 01/01/2008, -0/+33How old are you? Seriously, stop using multiple exclamation points, it isn't helping your argument !!!
  • SillyRabbits, on 01/01/2008, -4/+35I have to call BS on this explanation. At the core, iTunes is little more than an MP3 player that can transfer files. It's not rocket science. There's no reason it has to completely take over my computer and load 15+ megs of services into my memory (even when it's not running). I find it hard to believe that Apple "can't" make a more efficient version, they just choose not to. This is something many compsci students can code...
  • roflcopters, on 01/01/2008, -3/+34Just use msconfig to turn off programs which start when you log in.

    http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/
  • McMaster88, on 01/01/2008, -0/+31I use NOD32, and after installing it well over 6 months ago, I have had absolutely no problems with it at all.
  • KaiUno, on 01/01/2008, -0/+31Friends don't let friends install bonzi buddy. You're a bad friend. Bad.
  • ricky125, on 01/01/2008, -3/+32Sumatra PDF is a PDF reader that very small. It's GPL License, works great.

    http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/
  • nastajus, on 01/01/2008, -14/+42I'll read my stuff in ANY order I want!!!
  • edwartica, on 01/01/2008, -0/+28Norton IS a virus.
  • Smegzor, on 01/01/2008, -6/+34And reply I'll in order any I want
  • wush, on 01/01/2008, -4/+30trying too hard
  • SonicEarth, on 01/01/2008, -13/+39Why isn't Windows on that list?
  • Wiini, on 01/01/2008, -4/+30unless you've never heard of msconfig. In that case, don't use it because you'll probably just go and jack up your machine.
  • AllanX, on 01/01/2008, -3/+29Apple has always been chronically incapable of writing anything stable for Windows. QuickTime, anyone?
  • theojanke, on 01/01/2008, -0/+26http://www.download.com/Foxit-PDF-Reader/3000-2079 ...
  • tendonut, on 01/01/2008, -7/+33When it comes to web content, I'll take an embedded Quicktime video over a Real/WMP video any day.
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