We all love Microsoft.
Okay, that’s not entirely true. But the company did somehow become the most powerful software outfit on the planet, so they can’t be total morons, right? The software you’re about to see – the worst Microsoft products – suggests otherwise.
I’m going to warn you: this article is not for the faint of heart. The things you’re about to see will irratate, annoy and otherwise decrease the quality of your life.
It’s not too late to stop reading.
It is now, however. Guess you’re stuck reading about the Top 5 Free Worst Microsoft Products. Sorry about that.
#5: Internet Explorer 8
Okay, I’ll admit this much: Internet Explorer 8 is better than Internet Explorer 7, and far superior to Internet Explorer 6. But that’s hardly a compliment.
You’d think that, in the futuristic-sounding Year 2010, the browser offering from the most powerful software company on the planet would be an amazing thing to behold. The only thing that amazes me about Internet Explorer 8, however, is how little it seems to have learned from its competition.
Internet Explorer 8 fails at blocking many popups, insists on opening a vast number of sites in a new window instead of in a new tab, and is overall very stressful to use—particularly if you’re already used to a quality browser. Combine this with a seemingly steadfast refusal on Microsoft’s part to include more than one search engine by default and you’ve got one of the worst Microsoft products that I’d rather avoid altogether.
I will say one additional nice thing about Internet Explorer 8, however: it’s the most powerful Firefox downloading tool on the planet. Because that’s all I ever use Internet Explorer for: downloading Firefox.
Do yourself a favor and download Firefox too—you’ll thank me later. Alternatively, check out Google’s Chrome, or even Apple’s Safari.
Just please, don’t use Internet Explorer 8.
#4: Blue Screen of Death Screensaver
This one’s a matter of perspective, I suppose. I discussed the Blue Screen of Death Screensaver during a recent article on pranking your parents using the family computer. I then suggested this as a great little prank, and for the perpetrator of said prank it’s as much fun as a barrel of monkeys.
For the person on the receiving end of said prank, however, it’s akin to being repeatedly punched in the stomach by every single monkey in the aforementioned barrel. There’s nothing worse than getting to your computer and thinking it’s completely and irreversibly dead—except, that is, for thinking your computer is completely and irreversibly dead before realizing it’s just a cruel joke.
Why does Microsoft offer this? It’s bad enough that their products crash so often as to make the blue screen of death infamous, but to then capitalize on said infamy for the sake of some sick joke? This product, I think, causes untold misery to people around the world every year and needs to be stopped.
Don’t download the Blue Screen of Death Screensaver.
#3: Microsoft Office Dinosaur Screensaver
Remember those old Microsoft Office advertisements that featured dinosaurs complaining about technology issues? Me neither.
Anyway, there’s a screensaver based on those ads.
Yep, that’s right: the least memorable advertising campaign immortalized as a screensaver. The dinosaurs complain about technology and then try to dance their way out of their predicaments, implying all along that life would be better if only they’d purchased Microsoft Office 2003.
Hilarious, right? Yeah, I don’t really think so either. Don’t download the Microsoft Office Dinosaur Screensaver.
#2: Plus! Dancer LE
Sure, you like your computer now, but imagine if you could download dancers for it. Then your desktop could be a dancing party! Look, they even have Scooby-Doo!
What really makes this piece of software so great is that it’s not at all annoying. Having someone dance on my desktop is awesome. And it’s soooo practical! Think of how much easier getting work done will be now that Scooby-Doo is dancing in front of everything!
Okay, yeah, that was sarcasm. File this one under “bad ideas executed poorly.” Don’t download Plus! Dancer LE.
1. Bing Toolbar for Firefox
Pretty much every search engine on the market offers some sort of useless, bloated toolbar, but this is just insane: Microsoft offers a Bing toolbar…for Firefox.
Finally, a toolbar perfect for people tech-savvy enough to be using the open-source Firefox browser, but not tech-savvy enough to realize that search-engine specific toolbars are a waste of precious vertical space.
This unholy matrimony between awesome and awful disturbed me so much that I had to check it out. I have nothing but regrets. The toolbar, like most such toolbars, serves no real purpose other than pushing certain products and services on you.
There’s a search bar…but it only uses Bing. There’s a news button…but it only shows MSNBC. There’s an email button…but it only connects to Hotmail. You get the idea.
The design is awful—sure, it’s clean, but it uses up way more vertical space than a search bar and a few buttons could possibly need. It’s as if it’s trying to waste precious screen space. This would all be bad enough in and of itself, but the installation process bundles a bunch of crap I’m not interested in. First I see questions like this before installing:
Okay, fair enough, there’s some optional bundles I can say no to.
But there’s more. During the installation process I noticed the Bing Toolbar took the liberty of installing Silverlight, the Windows Live ID Sign-In Assistant and the Microsoft Search Enhancement Pack without so much as asking me permission first. There was no cancel button, so all I could do is sit there and watch as software I had no interest in imposed itself on my machine.
I was angry.
I tried turning off the computer, but that only made my computer laugh at me manically. I unplugged the computer and pulled out its battery but somehow it just kept on installing unnecessary and useless software, as though possessed.
Desperate to stop the installation process at this point, I grabbed my axe and swung at my computer with all my strength, only to have the axe-head shatter within centimeters of the screen.
There is no cancelling an installation of the Bing Toolbar.
For the love of all that is sacred, do not download Bing Toolbar for Firefox – easily one of the worst Microsoft products. It’s evil and will corrupt your computer with dark magic. I spent last night sobbing silently into my pillow, not sleeping at all.
Don’t download the Bing Toolbar for Firefox.
Conclusion
Not every free offering from Microsoft is terrible. I personally think Microsoft Security Essentials is the best antivirus on the market, and it’s 100 percent free. In a few days’ time, Mahendra will prove this point by showcasing the best 5 Microsoft products.
Having said that, there are no redemptive qualities to any of the software mentioned above. None.
Do not download them.
If you think you know of a worse free product from Microsoft, share it below in the comments. I won’t be downloading any of it to confirm, however, as I’ll be spending the next five days removing all the aforementioned useless crap from my computer.
Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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I checked on this article thinking I’d find at least 1 thing I agree with. I’m not in denial of some of Microsoft’s shortcomings, but listing a screen saver as a “worst” product of an operating system? I would have thought of Frontpage or Works or something like that.
Dumbest article I have read on this site to date. Nothing here but anti-Microsoft ranting that some people thing makes them uber l33t,but after reading your statements about IE8 it seems you are totally computer illiterate. If the Bing toolbar is stupid I suppose the google toolbar for firefox is totally moronic.
AGREED! I love Opera more than any browser out there. X)
Haha, awesome article!
It’s true, I don’t use IE8 for more than five minutes because while surfing along, I get the message, “Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and must close.” It also cheerfully reminds me that if a solution is found, Microsoft will notify me, but I’m not holding my breath on THAT one. I like IE, and of course I use IE7Pro, but I have rarely used it for very long when the errors come up. However, it does make a good engine for Maxthon and Avant Browser.
Just tried the Yahoo toolbar as well. I still think
Bing is the best. No matter, I won’t use it.
Solution? Borrow Geeky friend’s Win7 install cd and install it. Not free, but should be in MS Top 5 Best…
I personally like internet explorer. Firefox I think is better in most way though. I have never had any problems with pop ups and there is a setting that you can set to make pages come up in a new tab. The screensaver is hilarious. Bing sucks unless your looking for pictures. The rest deserve this. Why do they exist? Does anyone even use them?
Well this is a stupid article if I ever read one. Microsoft bashing is getting really old now and makes you sound like a whiny 9 yr old. IE8 is nowhere nearly as bad as you make it sound. Granted I do like Firefox better because of the extensibility but for the average user IE8 is more than appropriate and I would go as far as saying that it is better than Firefox in many ways. Stability anyone?
As for the Bing toolbar, I admit hate toolbars but for the purpose of commenting on this article I actually tried the major 3; Google, AOL and Bing and guess what? Bing is far far the best of the 3 IMHO
I am happy that IE 8 got so many supporters.
I don’t think that IE is superior to Firefox. That may be because i like that Firefox has so many customizable features. However, I normally use chrome, and extremely rarely get a popup. Finally, if you didn’t think that you could “make use of” what was in the article, then why did you read it. It was already mentioned earlier that the title was pretty explanatory of what was in the article.
Wow, the author needs to get a life. Microsoft products are as safe and stable as you make them. Windows does not continually crash like the Author of this post has stated. The Blue Screen of “Death” only appears on very, very rare occasions where there are driver or hardware failures. the Blue Screen of “Death” only appears from faulty RAM or some other hardware related fault. The author said this “Why does Microsoft offer this? It’s bad enough that their products crash so often as to make the blue screen of death infamous, but to then capitalize on said infamy for the sake of some sick joke? This product, I think, causes untold misery to people around the world every year and needs to be stopped”. The Author clearly has no idea what he is talking about. This just make me sick and never want to visit MakeUseOf.com again. The saddest part is that I have been a dedicated visitor of the site for a year.
With that said, Windows is as safe and reliable as you make it. If you keep you drivers updated and you hardware in check, you will never see the Blue Screen of “Death”. And, Windows can so much more than Macs can. Do Macs have many, many, many games for it? No. Are Macs the most common operating system? Nope, it’s Windows. Do Macs have tons of free applications for it that can do everything from Company management to Media Center applications? No, again. I will go so far to say that any Linux machine with the newest version of Ubuntu can do more than Mac. All we have here is a dumb fanboy that thinks he (or she) can write decent articles while attacking Windows. This article and Author makes this great site fail.
Agreed… Been using Opera now on my netbook for the past 4 weeks (ver 10.10) and nothing comes close to its’ performance in all aspects (from loading, rendering, minimizing and letting it sit and then maximizing it, etc..). This was after 6 months of frustrations working with all the other major browsers and a number of alternatives.
It’s easy enough to disable automatic updates. In fact, it even asks you whether or not you want them during installation.
Very odd; it works great for my family, and you remove it from “Add/Remove Programs” just like anything else. The only catch is it’s part of Windows Live Essentials, so it doesn’t have a separate uninstall entry.
I tried IE 8 for a bit but couldn;t stand the way they have configured it to shoe the favorites in a whole open list that you have to scroll up and down just to find a website you’ve saved.
it’s clunky and a time waster that way. If someone knows how to configure it like IE 6 favorites list, please let me know.
Maybe I just had to spend more time checking it out?
When i read the title i thought this might be a interesting read. however after reading i think you didn’t do any research at all into some of the products you picked. You recommended Safari above IE, just look into last year’s CanSecWest – Safari was compromised in SECONDS. As well IE8 is better than firefox is some respects of security. BSOD crashes usually were from driver errors which usually were created by a third-party, and again its a joke, don’t download it if you don’t think its funny. You must think that Google, AOL and Yahoo toolbars are the worst products those companies have ever made as well since they only point to their own services. I’ve never commented on an article before but this was just too bad to ignore. BTW i don’t use IE 8 – i use chrome and firefox.
Family Safety. It sounds wonderful. Keep your kids safe… Well, my husband couldn’t access anything online no matter what permissions he had, we couldn’t access any program that utilized the internet without signing in (like iTunes), AND to top it off – the program cannot be removed. GRRR!!
I agree with D.Gates. I’m a developer, and I have far more problems with Firefox than IE. It’s loads much slower, works much slower, and simply doesn’t work as well. I truly like Firefox extensions (Firebug being a particularly welcome lifesaver) for their flexibility and ease of use, but IE8 and Opera are far superior browsers. This article was seemingly written by a biased Micro-phobe, and holds the distinction of being the very first thing on makeuseof.com that I couldn’t even remotely make use of.
thumbs up, found this entertaining this morning with my coffee
XP SP3 includes the other two service packs, so that’s the only one you need to install. The simplest way to get SP3 on there is to borrow a newer install disc from a friend. As long as you use your own license key, this is perfectly legal.
If you have a sufficiently geeky friend, you can also have them slipstream SP3 onto an install disc. This basically means they install the service pack right onto the installation files. I did this once when I was building a computer for a client. He had an original XP disc, which didn’t support the SATA hard drive. Not Microsoft’s fault, really; SATA didn’t exist when XP came out.
Racist! um… in the geeky sense.
I only recommend Firefox if there’s specific extension-enabled functionality you want. Out of the box, it’s one of the weaker browsers. I used it as my main browser for three months before I got tired of having to install and maintain extensions just to get close to the functionality I was used to in Opera.
For the average everyday user, IE8 is easier to use than Firefox. Domain highlighting helps avoid scamming, and I’ve seen IE catch virus-bundling sites that Firefox ignored. IE’s blank tab screen is more useful, and I miss its tab grouping in Opera.
I found the article a little bit anecdotic and in some respect unfair to IE8 and to the Bing toolbar. For me the worst thing with MS is to simply to update a old version of Windows XP. Recently, I decided to re-install my old PC as out of the plant it’s to say the initial version of Windows XP using the recovery CD provided with it. My conclusion/ never do that: I got my old version of Windows XP and the the nightmare started: first of all to find on the MS site the various upgrades: SP1, 2 and 3. Having installed what I think are the good versions (the MS site is a real mess: one is never sure to have all the good updates). Result: Windows functions but apparently impossible to let function anything USB 2.0 (USB 2.0 is no more recognised)and no more access to the Net (I have to use a USB WiFi key – naturally a USB 2.0, Murphy’s law obliges). Yes for sure, my PC is an old PC but technically OK and it functionned slowly but correctly up to the day I had the very bad idea to re-initialize it in the hope to improve its performance. By the way, if somebody has an idea – step-by-step for the dummies, I’m not too geeky – to solve this type of problems, thanks in advance for his/her advice.
I use IE8 as my secondary browser, and the article completely failed to mention any of its strong points or innovations. Private browsing and multithreaded browsing started with IE, and IE still has the best tab grouping. Web slices and accelerators are also under-appreciated. IE9 will have hardware-accelerated rendering, and that’s going to be copied left and right by other browser makers.
Why complain about the Bing toolbar when Google and Yahoo do the same? Their toolbars also connect to their products and services, so what’s special about Bing? What, you wanted the Bing’s email button to redirect you to GMail?
It always facinates me, that people never ever even start the Internet Explorer but in the same sentence claim how bad of a product it is.
Obviously you haven’t even used it for more than 5 minutes. Granted you have to install IE7Pro (wich also works with IE8) to make IE8 bareable, but you also have to install AdBlock with Firefox (or use a Proxy for al Browsers).
I am an Opera user and in *MY* oppinion Firefox is much inferior to nearly all other browsers (ChromePlus, Opera, IE) just Safari is worse than Firefox (still IMHO).
And Firefox is alsways the last choice if the rather seldom occasion occurs that a site is not working with Opera.
So please stop this stupid Firefox fanboishm and naive Internet Explorer hate triads. Firefox is NOT the ultimate alternative and to bo honest, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone anymore.
I also wouldn’t say Internet Explorer 8 is a particularly bad browser. It actually has quite some nice features – and if you start it you’ll be ASKED what searchengines you want to use.
I can’t see whats the problem with that……
I second Scott, it was clear from the title what the post is all about!
Yep, Vista does have this annoying habit of rebooting your PC after update.
Not to mention that if you were to need to access a website that (for whatever reason) continues to only run on IE. You can always use IE Tab.
Death to IE and bloat-bars!!