Activity for March 3

Review - Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit)
Consumer Preview (Mar 3, 2012)

When looking at the software industry, certainly Microsoft products have not been the worst but the problem today is double. The new Microsoft products lack vision and the new releases of mature products, like Windows 8, lack real innovations and they are becoming too fat like their own mother Microsoft.

The installation of Windows 8 over Windows 7 went smoothly but it was long (about 1 hour) and the printers configuration was lost.

As soon as you open Windows 8 you feel as if you are forced to wear three pairs of socks, one over the other, on a hot summer day. It smells bad and makes your feet sweat and transpire!

Since the first release of Windows there has been not only 3 pairs of socks but a huge number of software layers one over the other. In Windows 8, it appears that Microsoft instead of being creative by really improving and optimising Windows, they added 2 or 3 superficial layers to the user interface in an attempt to make it tactile in an imitation much like a smartphone/ipad user interface.

They expanded what they can put on less than one screen into several screens and they cached essential links and functions behind firewalls of useless clicks.

Windows 8 now occupies the three sides of the screen with no less than two superposed layers of sliders on each side, all in a very ugly and impractical way. The new icons are rough copies from smartphone OS. The new Start screen is a collection of external links to promote Microsoft products and tools.

The new UI implementation is incapable of dealing efficiently with practical usage. It is ugly and lacks ergonomics. It is unbelievable how the people at Microsoft are becoming dummy.

It appears from Windows 8 preview that it will sink in deep sees as soon as it appears and by the same token it will submerge its mother at the same time.

Beyond the question of Windows 8 issues, splitting Microsoft, in the future, into manageable and creative small entities might help!
Review - Advanced SystemCare Free
3.5.0 (Feb 3, 2010)

After over one year of my first evaluation of this program, I wanted to have a look newly to see if there is any positive evolution. After making a full backup of my test PC, downloading the program, installing and running it, I was not surprised to see the same old and unpleasant user interface. After scanning the registry the program offered to remove hundreds of records. In one-click my PC has become full of errors and missing links. In conclusion, the best approach to damage your PC irremediably in one-click is to use this program. The idea that you can clean your PC in one-click is completely stupid and extremely dangerous.
Concerning the GUI, even after thousands of years of the invention of icons, the author of this program does not know yet how to use icons! Instead of writing harmful programs maybe he should study hieroglyphs.
The authors of bad programs have taken the habit of having several names or even using slave names to rate their own software. Upon reading a 4 or 5 star evaluation you can guess immediately whether it is a genuine or a composition by a slave name. I guess that after this evaluation, a slave name will jump out with a 5 star evaluation.
One star because there is no lower evaluation.
Review - NetLimiter Pro (32-bit)
3.0 Beta 7 (Feb 2, 2010)

Concerning the user interface, this application had originally a nice, well thought and well-designed GUI, but the author has a strong tendency for adding redundant functions, links and even words to the application’s screen which begins to become overloaded. You can see the UL/DL overall speed twice. You have a horizontal toolbar and a vertical sidebar. You have a horizontal information view and a vertical information view. The screen is full of redundant functionalities, redundant titles and redundant words (Outgoing, Outgoing…, Local, Local…, Remote, Remote…, Address, Address…, Connection, Connection…)
Concerning the functionality and the current beta test, I couldn’t install beta 7 because I had a BlueSOD during the installation. Also, during the tests of beta 6, I had few BlackSOD during Windows startup, immediately after entering the system password when the screen switches to the desktop display. I am currently still testing the limit function using beta 6.
It would be useful if the author can add the following columns for each process:
Speed DL/UL, Limit, Total sent/received current transaction, Cumulative sent/received process.
On the other hand, inviting the user aggressively to buy the program while it is in beta phase and full of problems, is not a useful marketing practice.
To encourage the author I give the application 4 stars.
Review - Process Lasso (x32) Free Edition
3.79.9 Beta (Dec 17, 2009)

This program has nothing but fake capabilities. Like other fake tools it colonizes your PC and sucks its resources. It is parasite software. After my last evaluation over 6 months ago I thought it might be amusing to give a look at the new beta. Not to mention that meanwhile there has been no less than 200 betas since Avril 2009 from version 3.59.2 Beta to version 3.79.9 Beta (that is over 20x10 = 200 Betas in few months … a parasite). This program has a record number of betas in the given time span. After backing up my test PC and installing the software, I run the program while using different workloads for testing purposes. The program did nothing but slowing down my PC.

The program developer has a set of names on Betnews Fileforum and has some slave names which he uses to give himself 5 start evaluations. In particular
jcollake : about 20 five star evaluations
emanresU derised : over a dozen of 5 star evaluations

After my new evolution certainly some name will jump out with 5 star evaluation.

In conclusion I repeat hereafter my previous evaluation:

This is absolutely useless piece of software. It simply consumes your PC resources without any real benefit. Installing it on a heavily loaded PC would cripple it. While installing it on a lightly loaded PC might let you think that it is a useful tool if you don’t know how to audit your PC performance. It is Windows which still optimizes the workload even after installing this software. One of the last improvements documented in the release 3.59.2 Beta is the following: “Added CPU throttling (both persistent and temporary). This applies a hard limit on the CPU time a process can consume. This is not meant to replace ProBalance and should be used only in certain, appropriate situations”. Usual blah blah blah. For long time now, every other day there is a new beta release of this software. Either this software is a guessing development or it is like some other software authors who try to keep downloading busy. In some cases it appears that the marketing model/paradigm used is to issue a new beta release every other day. It helps as publicity. In some other cases, frequent downloading is used to generate little revenue or to force installing additional unwanted adware during the installation process. One star, only because there is no lower rating!
Review - Comodo System Cleaner
2.0.107697.4 (Aug 27, 2009)

After installing the software on a fully updated Vista PC (for test purposes only as I do not have the slightest confidence in Comodo software tools), Windows BLUESCREENS strated to appear every other day. After investigating the driver problem behind, it appears that the driver called CFRPD.sys which is installed by the software is the cause. Thanks to Nirsoft Bluescreen Tool it was easy to spot the faulty driver. After testing all the software tools from Comodo one by one, it appears that the software is designed to better know you and your PC rather than to protect you. Not to mention the damage and the slowdown that most of these tool can inflict on your PC. Comodo software through a dozen of tools colonizes your PC. It is main objective is to protect itself (not your PC) by removing other concurrent spy software. If you have some curiosity about the health of your PC you can easily notice the war between such security software. One of the battle grounds is of course your PC.