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Annoying Products, Annoying XP Plans, Huge Drives

Our readers contribute irritating tech products to our list, gripe about Microsoft's plans for XP, and discuss Hitachi's new 1TB hard drive.

Kellie Parker

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What products annoy you the most? We asked, and you answered! Check out the list as voted by our readers, as well as some extras we threw in. Tell us what products annoy you the most, and find out which OS one reader thinks is on par with ebola.

Sticking with XP? Not so fast... Microsoft has announced that it will be discontinuing the OS in early 2008. Read up on the details, and then come share your outrage or defense of Microsoft in our forums.

Who needs a 1-terabyte hard drive? You do! Check out our review of Hitachi's new drive, and let us know what you think. Many readers feel that size isn't the only thing to consider: Reliability and ease of backups are important, too.

Have you ever dropped your mobile phone into a toilet? How about knocking a soda all over your keyboard? Maybe your computer released "mysterious smoke" or caught on fire? PC World is working on a story about your worst computing disasters, and we want to hear what they are! Come share your misery (and battle scars) in our forum.

We end with product reviews from users like you. Attention control freaks: There's a software utility that's made just for you! Keep reading to find out what it is.

To review a product you own, search for it in PC World Shopping and click "Add Your Review."

Note: To use our interactive features, such as adding comments to discussions, voting in the weekly poll, and contributing your own product reviews, you must be signed in to PCWorld.com. (Not registered? You can sign up online.) However, you can view the discussion threads and poll results without being signed in.

The 20 Most Annoying Tech Products

bbrigg says: Number 15 in the surefire ways to annoy users: Have your program install to an obscurely named subdirectory, then put icons on the desktop and in the quick-launch bar as well as the root of the Start menu without giving the user any choice in the matter. A lot of well-known programs do this.

wildbill2u says: I was having a problem with Windows 98. I went through five Microsoft tech reps, including supervisors, all of whom directed me to different "fixes." After hours and days on the phone, one of them came up with a wonderful "thank you for your patience" gift: a free copy of Windows ME. What a bummer. I suspect a free vial of anthrax or ebola was the next step up the chain of techs.

BobMac says: The giggest annoyance about the AOL situation shows up when you do the math. They offered 1099 free hours, but you have only 50 days to complete your time. 50 days = 1200 hours - the 1099 free hours = 101 hours of free time which is 2.02 hours per day of the 50 day trial. When you factor in the reboot time to get back on after AOL kicks you off, there isn't even enough time to go to the bathroom for 50 days. No wonder why so many people hate AOL.

techdragn says: You forgot to mention the fun times had by all when, for unknown reasons, Norton products will fail to work and require a reinstallation, but also require that it be uninstalled. Then you get to track down the special Norton uninstall program which, after 5 minutes of running will eventually remove the offending program, but comes up with a warning that you must reinstall Norton immediately--like I was ever going to do that, after that pain.

Read all the posts in this thread and contribute your own opinion.

Windows XP to be Discontinued in Early 2008

backpack says: This fiasco with a new OS every five years is starting to get annoying. This is just ridiculous, as most companies start to settle down with migrating to XP--bam!--another OS comes out. Microsoft expects that companies are going to keep migrating to a new OS each time they introduce a new OS. This is poor thinking on Microsoft's part.

gilrob says: After 12 years of using everything from Windows 95 to Windows XP at home or work, I have finally had enough from Mafiasoft. Aside from stability and security issues, their seemingly arrogant and heavy-handed treatment of their customers has made the decision to move to Linux a slam dunk.

kj1975 says: I for one do not plan to "upgrade" to Vista anytime soon. Heck, one of my home computers is running Windows 2000 pro and the newer one has both 2000 pro and XP (for when I need to use a program that 2000 does not support) on it as does my work computer. I see no reason to upgrade.

wittigpc says: Microsoft is the best thing Apple has going for it. I have been a computer tech for ten years, and I have never had so many customers switching to the Mac. This all looks like a trip down memory lane. I even keep unconsciously calling Vista "Millennium."

Read all the posts in this thread and contribute your own opinion.

Reviewed: Hitachi's Massive 1TB Hard Drive

Skunky says: The 750 Seagate is still $300... $400 for that extra $250 or so GB is not bad. I need to get a MacPro and two of those TB drives and raid them together. I would hate to lose that much info, and I would hate to have to recover all of that info as well. The only thing big enough to back that drive up is another TB drive.

woritz5 says: 1TB without doing RAID and cheaper than two 500MB drives with RAID 0! It should entice PC manufacturers to put this drive in their higher-priced configurations to get to 1TB, and it saves an internal SATA connection in the process. The performance isn't bad either. I want one now!

vertigo says: People have become too concerned with hard drive performance and space and have forgotten the most important thing, especially for storage drives: reliability. You can have the fastest, highest-capacity hard drive on the market, but that does no good for you when it crashes, taking all your data with it. Most people aren't following these space breakthroughs and buying these large capacity drives to run Windows on them--they want them to store files, often important ones that they don't want to lose. It's time to stop pushing space so much and start pushing quality.

madman2k says: I still can't believe that people are putting all of their important information on one drive and hoping that the drive doesn't go to hard-drive heaven prematurely. People need to start being smart and use external drives, unless you enjoy your information going to the land of no return.

Read all the posts in this thread and contribute your own opinion.

Tell PC World About Your PC Disasters

PC World is working on a story about the worst computing disasters--and how to prevent them and recover from them. We're covering everything from a Windows blue screen to a dead hard drive to lost Internet connections to gadgets that had close encounters of the aquatic kind.

We'd love to hear about your worst computing catastrophes (and how you got over them) and we'll include some of them in our article.

Read all the posts in this thread and contribute your own opinion.

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