Paul D Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 I'm going to put in a good word for EasyCD, at least version 5.I’ve never had any trouble with it for data or audio. In fact I prefer it to Nero for audio – it’s wave editor is excellent for cleaning tracks off tape or vinyl. And the other place where it wins hands down is the packet writer. DirectCD is just about the nicest bit of software I own. It just sits in the tray and WORKS – genuine install and forget. Nero’s InCD on the other hand is an absolute dog. When I bought a new burner it came with Nero so I uninstalled all my old Adaptec/Roxio software and installed the new Nero. Well, InCD wouldn’t read or write to any of the CDRWs that DirectCD had written. And if I used InCD I then couldn’t use Nero without rebooting – InCD just takes over the burner and doesn’t let go. After 2 weeks of struggling with this I bought EasyCD 5, uninstalled InCD, installed DirectCD and haven’t looked back. Unlike InCD, DirectCD reads and writes to any packet writer CD with no problem, does its job and goes back to sleep.It's probably worth adding that I use the packet writer quite a lot - enough that the constant rebooting InCD necessitated was more than just an occasional nuisance.In summary, Nero is more powerful and flexible. EasyCD is simpler and more intuitive. Depends on what's more important to you. Both work fine, at least for me.Quote from way back somewhere:-"3. EasyCD Creator. Did you know that the C: drive is hard coded into that piece of software? If you do not install it on the C: drive, it does not work." That statement is just plain good old-fashioned rubbish. Mine has been on F: for ever, both version 3.5 which I still keep 'cos I like the cover designer, and version 5.More good stuff - Logitech mouseware. I even use it with an MSW mouse at work on a Windows 2000 machine, because the MS mouse software just doesn't work in an old DOS game there, while the Logitech software works flawlessly.File sharing. WinMX. There are apps around that let WinMX tap into the OpenNap server network, which makes it pretty powerful, and spyware/adware-free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicDragon Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 I'm going to put in a good word for EasyCD, at least version 5.Yea, i have also never had a problem with it. But, it seems to cause problems for a lot of people. It came with my computer, but if i had to purchase burning software, i would probably go with Nero, in hopes of avoiding future problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nlinecomputers Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 Well I'm one that never has had any problems with Roxio either untill now.I have had for weeks a problem on my XP box of being unable to change the size of my swap file. The moment I tried it would BSOD with a stop 0x24 on CLASSPNP.sys. This acts like a possible hardware failure but it is not. After a wipe and reinstall of XP the problem was fixed until I got to the point to reinstall Roxio. Blam problem returns. Uninstall Roxio problem remains. Hunt down every registry link I can find and kill it. Find all the files on the system not uninstalled and kill it. Problem still here. Guess what I'm going to have to do this week...grrr!(4 reinstalls in two $%#@! weeks.) I have to use Windows because I sell and repair computers. But I run Linux more and more.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 grrr!(4 reinstalls in two $%#@! weeks.) everyone's been down these roads before of multiple-re-installs. thats why this Hall of Shame is such a hot topic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicDragon Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 grrr!(4 reinstalls in two $%#@! weeks.)Ouch! Sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool_techie Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 i would like to add Mandrake Linux and Red hat linux to the software hall of shame.. i know i will get lot of crticism for that.. but i do think they warrant it and here are just few of the reasons:-Mandrake a bloated linux... slow to boot and slow in performance.and both red hat and mandrake have these things in common:- extremely slow GUI (on my pc windows works at least 2 time faster than linux , if u go for performance under GUI0crashing applications.. more freq than windowz boxleaving too many security hole open... if u are not a linux geek, just dont connect to net.. aside from the fact that there are whole lot of services activated without any option to user, and which have tens of known exploits, these distro have lot of (mis)configurations which actually lure crackers.....and the help?? god!! it took me twomnths to have my snd card work.. and that too all by myself.. nneither did red hat foprum responded.. nor did those linux gurus on IRC channels.. they just know how to make ur life more miserable. finally i found abt ALSA , read a lot of docs and my snd card did work.. but is linux really worth all this trouble?? probably bloated codes have also started to effect one of the most sacred mission in the the software domain... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greengeek Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Sounds like you're not ready for Linux yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool_techie Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 neither would be many others if linux community is as tacit as this and installations open up a pandoras box of problem related to security.. justwhy cant they leave all those services down by default??and those hard disk tewaks with HDparms dont work much.. The X is really slow .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Sounds like you need to talk to Dr. Bruno over in the All Things Linux Forums ;)He will help you get that Linux going ... unlike those other forums ... and I'm not kidding! You don't have to go it alone and believe me, it is worth it!Just start a topic and Bruno, Peachy, Thunder and a host of us Linux users will be there to help.Don't give up till you've tried out the truly Professional help of Dr. Bruno, et al. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryB Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Cool TechieHang in there! Sorry about your experiences...Sound configs can be a challenge sometimes...especially if all you get is "Read The Manual" which was written by linux geeks for linux geeks...but learning a new language is always fun I have not had the experiences you have had (I have 5 boxes with some variation of linux and windows in multi- boot)...Bloat wise I have found Mandrake and Redhat to be highly configurable, it's easy to scale down apps (many are reduntant capabilities..but at least you can remove them and create your own personized packages) not to mention inexpensive (ok I'm cheap!!! Security issues.armed with the right info can be corrected...(which you mentioned..but ummm would be interested in the detail) Is it worth it..Nice rhetorical question..you'll have to answer that yourself..for me it is...But if your interested ,follow LilBambi advise...Bruno and the Gang will help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lion_on_the_Beach Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 GatorMSN (especially 5+ -> an "up to date" internet app that won't go through a router without gymnastics??)Bonzai BuddyLotus Notes (I'm the Admin and I hate it!)Win MEMS Office - a gazillion MB and $$ to do what Software602 does with 13MB (pretty much) and free Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quint Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 When I used WindowsXP, there was one program that completely ruined my system; got to thinking that maybe it was something that I did wrong (I'm good at that), so I re-installed, read everything, went slow, followed directions to the "T". Result: completely ruined the system again. After that, finally got rid of:Oh, btw, PartitionMagic 7 worked flawlessly for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lion_on_the_Beach Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Oh yah, how could I not say I hate anything that requires an Activation Code!! Wasn't MicroShaft making enough money? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctsolutions Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 I have to agree most heartily on Intuit, although my experience is mainly with Quickbooks and their recent acquisition of Lacerte Tax Software. For years now, Quickbooks (and I imagine it's the same with Quicken) has been one to spawn multiple hidden background processes. Even if you try to turn auto-updating off in the prefs and remove the auto-launch entry for their hidden chatterbox in the registry, it starts whenever you run their software. If you forget it's lurking and drop your firewall temporarily (for whatever reason) it updates itself. Then, with some versions, it launches an additional couple of bakcground processes whenever it runs. Given Intuit's obvious lack of respect for your privacy (their email-your-invoices service uses their servers, and the term of use specifically give them the right to read and archive anything you send, and to harvest any information they want, like customer addresses!) I have no doubt that some of the running processes (no doubt those that want to access the internet so badly) are spyware. And since they bought Lacerte, every time my client e-files a tax return, I get text messages from thei firewall about an attack from something on Intuit's network attempting to connect to nonstandard ports. The e-filing completes just fine, though those connection attempts are blocked - so why are they attempting to connect in such a pushy manner as to trigger an alarm? I mean it just makes me so... And don't get me started on Office XP! Micro$oft has really hit a new low with Outlook XP - not only does is behave like an alpha, it thinks that 'Use rtf format for sending messages' means 'encode any attachments I send, and possibly the text of the message as well, into a proprietary winmail.dat file which can only be deciphered by others cursed with the same email program.' That's if you can persuade it to send your mail at all. And those #!@*% "smart" tags in Word. Apparantly that feature has a genius for turning perfectly good files into garbage data. Ugh..Of course, hotbar and webshots. How does nobody seem to realize that their computer started crashing all the time right about when they installed that junk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool_techie Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 but learning a new language is always fun well i know it is true.. and perhaps thats why i am still hangingn to it... but i dont want to fight over linux and windowz.. i just wanna say...KDE sucks...(the worst piece of app i ever had to see) The gnome file broswer sucks(each time u open a winodws mounted partition.. it crashes...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quint Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 but learning a new language is always fun well i know it is true.. and perhaps thats why i am still hangingn to it... but i dont want to fight over linux and windowz.. i just wanna say...KDE sucks...(the worst piece of app i ever had to see) The gnome file broswer sucks(each time u open a winodws mounted partition.. it crashes...) cool_techie,Welcome. Sorry about your bad experiences with Linux, but perhaps you could try again - take the suggestions of Fran and BarryB, and start a new topic over in "All Things Linux"...I am sure that at least some of your problems will be rectified, and if you still find no enjoyment from Linux, you can say you tried it and it just wasn't for you. But I would think the outcome will be quite different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greengeek Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 I've never crashed Linux yet, even when I was learning, it's got to be almost crash proof! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nlinecomputers Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 Joy,I've never crashed it either. I have had apps crash and freeze but that is fixed with kill or a control-esc if your running X. I've seen a kernal panic once but that was on bad hardware that was freezing in windows so I thought I give Linux a try on it just for grins. Linux is less tollerant of flaky hardware then Windows is. Not a bad thing really, what was an intermitant error in windows would even let Linux boot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allshebe Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 I would actually propose to nominate Internet Explorer! While previously probably one of the best Windows browsers, it has failed to keep up with the times and Web standards.I second the nomination - at least version 6.0 running on XP. When MS (in a huff?) decided to not include the java vm in the 'default' load, I decided I would use Sun Java. I recently tried to use the Java chat at Yahoo. I got a message that I should download the vm from MS (fat chance). On the other hand, I just downloaded Opera 7.11 and, with it identified as IE6, it opens the chat just fine with the Sun java. So much for MS fulfilling their agreements/obligations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 Incredimail. The world's scariest EULA! Calls home every time you use it.ps. Linux can be secure with one line in your iptables configuration.Still a newbie but I like Mandrake.Dual-booting with WinXP, the performance seems to be close with maybe a slight edge in Linux.pps.try Knoppix live CD for a painless test version of Linux. No installation! Tons of included apps! Free!Knoppix Webpage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicDragon Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 pps.try Knoppix live CD for a painless test version of Linux. No installation! Tons of included apps! Free!Knoppix WebpageYea, knoppix is great! It even works pretty well on older pc's. Maybe it should be in the hall of fame? (if it isn't already). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henderrob Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 Microsoft Media Player gives me real nice sound in XP with SoundBlaster 5.1 using a four speaker set for my Koss 4.1. It has multichannel sound that I don't get in linux or other MP3 players Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest martinultima Posted July 30, 2003 Share Posted July 30, 2003 Palm OS 4.0.1 (maybe it's just my Palm m125, but...) - very, very glitchy. Often crashes (I had to delete half of my favorite programs from my handheld just because they kept crashing the thing), and twice it's accidentally hard-reset... and here's the biggest problem: when it's hard reset, the screen says something like "erase all data, press PAGE UP; continue normally, any other key" - and guess what?Any other key doesn't work.I've had to wipe it out twice all because of that glitch - neither time intentionally. The only reason I'm still using the stupid thing is because I'm sorta low on funds (I'm planning on upgrading one of my computers) and I don't have the time to move everything over, get all sorts of new accessories for recharging while travelling, etc.(Everything you may hear about Palm making "one silly mistake after another"... perfectly true) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mi1house Posted August 6, 2003 Share Posted August 6, 2003 It’s been awhile since I uninstalled it, but “WINZIP 8.0†was a monumental pain in the A$$.Equally as bad has to be “HP’s Share To Web†applet that came out for a short time with some of its hardware. If you uninstalled this lame excuse of software incorrectly (read: never) it would literally cement itself to your desktop via an irremovable icon! I tried everything from scouring the registry, to a dandy uninstall tool from their website (that did not work at all).For me to poop on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeh Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 I nominate CD Anywhere for the software hall of shame. It is software that creates virtual CDROM drives and lets you copy an entire CD to your hard disk and load it into a virtual CDROM drive. Great idea for childrens games. However, I tried using three different versions of it under Windows XP and each version of the software had problems - different problems in each case. The details are documented on my web site Computer Gripes After problems with the third version of the software, the vendor (V Communications) said the latest problems will be fixed in the next release. At no time did they try to debug the problems despite my sending them error messages and error codes. Just terrrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 I nominate CD Anywhere for the software hall of shame. It is software that creates virtual CDROM drives and lets you copy an entire CD to your hard disk and load it into a virtual CDROM drive. Great idea for childrens games. However, I tried using three different versions of it under Windows XP and each version of the software had problems - different problems in each case. The details are documented on my web site Computer Gripes After problems with the third version of the software, the vendor (V Communications) said the latest problems will be fixed in the next release. At no time did they try to debug the problems despite my sending them error messages and error codes. Just terrrible.i never heard of itfor what its worth, the best CD Image emulator has got to be the built-in one for Alcohol 120%. The same company made Phantom CD before, and now the Phantom CD is included inside Alchohol. Makes multiple CD-drives, mount and unmount images by simple right-click in windows explorer on the virtual CD, and can handle pretty much all types of copy protected games without a hitch. as far as the system is concerned, you have a genuine CD inserted in your drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trigggl Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 Don't know if this has been mentioned and I wouldn't have even known about it except for work.MS Internet Security and Acceleration Server Or ISA Server for short.It does a great job of blocking harmful files and any browser not named Internet Explorer. I am forced to use IE at work because Netscape, Mozilla or any other browser is blocked. The ISA server can be configured to allow these through, but then it is less secure.Well, I can still use Firebird on the local network. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webb Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 Are you looking for candidates?#2 Adobe Reader - bloated, scatters files all over your HD.#1 RealPlayer - bloated, scatters files all over your HD, steals file associations, phones home for all sorts of unsavory purposes.I have to confess that I have RealPlayer 10 - but I keep it on a very tight leash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Internet Explorer 8.0, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0 4.0..etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
striker Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 Norton Ghost 14.0Used it a couple of hours on a clean Vista 64bit install: it sabotaged and crippled Vista to be even worse than the Migraine Edition (ME), Vista was unusable after the install. Tried it a couple of times to no avail, forums solution were doing nothing to the positive, in fact I saw more people having trouble with it. Therefore I send it back for the 60 days money-back-guarantee. Using something else now which actually works 100% and costs even less.Comodo CIS 64 bit Vista:Uses ask toolbar which is pre-checked by default. It is being presented as being something from Comodo to improve things, however it's just this ask toolbar thing. Disgustible at the least. I have it installed (the CIS that is, not that toolbar and its accompanying so called improvements) and knew from the start from this 'peculiar offer', but those less savvy are going to be shoved this ask toolbar down the throat. They will probably simply click yes. Bad bad thing. Doesn't even switch off Vistas own firewall, so after the install you end up with two firewalls fighting each other, nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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