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What software programs have left you feeling conned?

A

Alobar

Addicted Member
Any OS, whatever have proven useless, over priced, poorly designed interfaces, lousy integration. Basically anything that doesn't at least try to live up to its own hype.

I'll go first! :)

Norton Security.
OK, first I have a general distrust for the anti virus packages, whoever they are from. Part of me wonders if they are really watching my back, or maybe they have a secret underground floor where hackers are employed to write malicious programs, that only the ones upstairs know the fix! I'm kidding of course!

The main gripe with Norton is the almost constant nag pop ups saying that I'm at risk unless I hand them complete control, have them take all my passwords to their cloud (thus insuring that I will never stray to the competition perhaps? :idea:)..

And then there is this. I am supposed to be able to have 5 devices covered with Norton Security, but when I try to set up my cell phone, when I click on their link to complete the process I get some warning that the site is untrusted. Now isn't that a hell of a thing? Paying good money for protection, and to free your mind from worry, and get this nonsense.! :rant:

Whats a better anti virus? I have 82 days till I am giving Norton the boot, and want to have a better experience with my next choice.
 
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"when I try to set up my cell phone, when I click on their link to complete the process I get some warning that the site is untrusted"

Dumb question, but are you trying to click through on the website on your PC, website on your phone, or set up through the app store?
 
old_tv_nut said:
"when I try to set up my cell phone, when I click on their link to complete the process I get some warning that the site is untrusted"

Dumb question, but are you trying to click through on the website on your PC, website on your phone, or set up through the app store?
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They email a link as I recall that when opened up has the authorization code to install to another device, in this case installation on the phone. So I have not gotten past the email. I'm fairly sure it's an OK link but I won't click on it because as I've learned, irony (like the moon) is a cruel mistress! :whip:
 
I definitely agree with your caution, but I wonder if you ignore the email and go through the phone app (and get an authorization on your phone instead of by email link) if it will work. [or will it insist on sending a link via email?]
 
old_tv_nut said:
I definitely agree with your caution, but I wonder if you ignore the email and go through the phone app (and get an authorization on your phone instead of by email link) if it will work. [or will it insist on sending a link via email?]
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It has been a while since I have tried adding my phone but I believe that I have to set up different devices from within Norton on my desktop pc. I enter my email addres, Norton emails me and then I open the link and follow the instructions. Easy, done it countless times. Getting red flags from one of these has been unheard of before..
 
I have Norton on my Android phone, but it went easily, so honestly, I can't remember what was involved.
 
Was a time I would have said Avast (free), but maybe not any more as they've gotten pretty pushy with the "run for your life you're at risk!" crap ...

That said, I've been using it for years with no real virus issues.

PS - another good tool is MalWareBytes. I run that every now and then as an extra level of protection.

... and I'm told that the Windows Defender ain't half bad, but I've never used it.
 
I never like Norton, they always seemed pushy. I've used Avast as my antivirus, Comodo as my firewall and Malwarebytes for periodic scans for just over a decade now. Avast has become more frequent with the popup windows, but I'm using the free version, so I can't complain.
 
I pretty much have used the strategy sKiZo has for years with no problems. Avast free with Malwarebytes free as second opinion scanning every once in a while. Unfortunately the penalty over recent years for using the free options is more and more pushy ads to upgrade to paid services. Seems to be a general pattern, not just Avast.
 
My laptop and desktop both run Chrome OS, which is built from the ground up with security as the first priority. No need for Norton or any other antivirus.
 
OK, good to know about the AV solutions out there. How about other software that underwhelms?

Quicken. I've been running this one since the DOS days in the early 90's and while there is only so much a financial software program can do, I was happy enough with it, and upgraded every 3 years or so until that is, it went to a yearly subscription based package for about the same price as it was.

I'm still holding out at v 2016 while I try to find a simple replacement for it in order to DL my monthly statements from the bank.

Honestly I can't blame them for moving to the subscription-based model as there has likely been very little room for improvement for at least 10 years now. But I am retired, pretty much a fixed income, and I really have no taste for adding another yearly expense to my dwendling nest egg over this.

So now that I cannot DL from my bank account I have been manually entering my records and cut/pasting the income/ expenses that don't change from month to month. It's more labor intensive but not that bad. The worst part is that I will continue to get the nag screens forever from intuit, or at least until they manage to disable v2016 for good!
 
Pro Tools is extremely expensive and low on features when compared to something like Reaper or most other DAW software. But since it's for "professionals" they charge a fortune.
Most security software is crap and very intrusive. I find the paid versions offer little over the free versions.

Honourable mention to Malwarebytes and CCleaner for offering very good free versions that are very useful.
 
Roon.

This is likely to be a little controversial because I know a lot of people here on AK and elsewhere that have it and of those almost everyone loves it. And once I got past viewing it as a software program but instead a service I started accepting it more, warts and all.

First I always used to view it as a replacement for my current media player (JRiver) and at some point before I even trialed it I planned to just plunk down $500 for the life time membership thinking it really must be that good. Then the price went up to $700 and it forced me to view it in a new light.

I admit that I haven't had much time with it yet, just a month and a half "trial" after which next week I'm going to pay for a year and see if I make use of some of its features such as Roon Radio which so far has been a great music discovery tool, the best by far I have experienced which is worth the price on its own.

What I find really objectionable is the Roon core interface itself. It is very shiny and smooth (simple) to look at visually but there is very little behind the curtains, or under the hood for software in this price range. Any customization is almost non-existant. Adding music to a simple Playlist seems to involve a lot of clicking around. Settings, and other menu items seems to be found all over the place, and with zero right click functionality, it isn't very readily available. Click on the "3 mystery dots" one time and certain menu items are not there (where other times they are), forcing you to go back to the another view and trying it again etc.

They make its very sparse interface into a selling feature (the con), clean and simple and that might be enough for most, but I still find it's lack of tools, menus and view customization and control far more of a hindrance than a benefit. I may get used to it but it feels like a big step backwards compared to JRiver IMO.
 
My biggest complaint about JRiver is them dragging their feet to support more modern stream encoding. I'm talking AAC-HE, etc.. They said they were working on Opus too (arguably better or comparable) but that has yet to materialize. I kind of think Panel is a joke and they should have salvaged what they could from the iOS app and made a new cross platform app that wasn't web based with a garish interface.... But I still support them.

Can't comment on Pro Tools, but I've owned licensed copies of Orion (rip, was decent), FL Studio, Cubase Elements, and a few other things. I like Cubase but its so damn expensive and they have a piss poor outline of their available features in each version. FL Studio I used to like but for some reason can't work well with it anymore, I'm just a tinkerer anywhere not even a pro. :rflmao:

On my own personal investment side, Serif has really irked me as of late.. Specifically when they decided to abandon their old line of software and redo it all from scratch. Affinity actually has a LOT of potential as a Photoshop alternative, but the way you accomplish some things is so unintuitive or overly burdensome on the user compared to Photoshop, and that is a huge mistake. Half the time I have to remember to rasterize my layer to do certain things, and whereas in Photoshop you could make a selection on an image (draw it out, use the tool, whatever) copy a part from another image file or selection and then go back to the selection you made and "paste into" it will just work. Photoshop handles ass the clipping/masking, etc for you. Whereas with Affinity you have to do it manually and sometimes you can't even resize what you've pasted into the selection mask, properly, without going back a few steps. Because the mask and what you pasted in will lock sizes with each other :rolleyes:


stupid things like this annoy me... I haven't tried their Desktop Publishing replacement for their old PagePlus line yet, as I still have a working installer for it, and I sold my magazine a few years back.. But I hope its better than Affinity Photo.
 
0Hz said:
My biggest complaint about JRiver is them dragging their feet to support more modern stream encoding. I'm talking AAC-HE, etc.. They said they were working on Opus too (arguably better or comparable) but that has yet to materialize. I kind of think Panel is a joke and they should have salvaged what they could from the iOS app and made a new cross platform app that wasn't web based with a garish interface.... But I still support them.
Click to expand...

I agree on Panel, I don't get the point of it. It seemed like it may have applications for remote control of smart things around the house but that I don't need.

As for streaming music files around the ole homestead, I have used JR DLNA with good results, streaming to 4 devices including a rpi3 for a DAC/headphone amp combo, and another win 10 as well as my cellphone using the JRemote (2) which now can receive even hi rez files over wifi from the NAS.

I'll be honest I don't understand the whole "Roon Core" concept, but I think I'll need to invest in hardware of some form to make it works like JR does with what I have already. Roon only allows one copy, has no app for a phone even but uses Squeezebox, which I don't get at all either.
 
Conned? I don't think ever in 30+ years. Norton and McAfee were good at one point in history.

Whenever I get a new computer I research and put the best security app on my computers. Trend Micro Antivirus has been consistently the best and it's been on 3 different MacBook Pros for the last 10 years. Easy to use and effective. No problems. It upgrades regularly and stays current to any problems or threats.
 
While it came with my laptop, there is some Dell Backup/Recovery thing that I simply cannot destroy. I've tried everything. It pops up randomly, and basically grinds anything I'm doing to a halt. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Since all I use this for is music, I do not require, nor need this.

Malwarebytes has gotten ridiculous with their popups. I been with them for a decade, love their software, and should probably just buy it.

CCleaner is another fine product.

So, I guess I cannot think of any software that has failed me, other than the Aardvark Q10 software for my studio interface. Company pretty much went tits-up about a year after I bought mine, and it's buggy as hell. Groups have tried to patch up the software that IS available, but it has never really worked right.
 
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