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The 6 Worst Versions of Windows, Ranked
How To Geek ^ | Apr 5, 2021 | Benj Edwards

Posted on 04/05/2021 1:35:41 PM PDT by upchuck

After over three decades of Microsoft Windows success, there have been some clear failures along the way. With that in mind, we’ve picked the six worst versions of Windows. All of these made us want to stick to older, better versions of Windows, or use alternatives like Macs or Linux instead.

The Ranking Criteria Most of us know a bad version of Windows when we see it. Maybe we’ve experienced personal pain in wrestling with its bugs, or lost time reinstalling it over and over again, or heard stories about how often it’s crashed.

In developing this list, we considered the following metrics: How much people hated each version (appearances on other worst-of lists), how poorly it sold, how slowly it was adopted, how bad its reviews were, the length of its lifespan on the market, and our own personal experiences with the software. For fun, we also googled “Windows [x] Sucks,” and tallied up the results.

Honestly, there’s no hard science to this, so you might not agree with our exact ranking, but we can confidently predict this: If you ran at least one of these versions of Windows, you wanted to upgrade.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Education
KEYWORDS: microsoft; windows
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I know many FReepers delight in never reading the article, so here are the rankings:

#6: Windows 1.01 (1985)

#5: Windows XP (Initial Release, 2001)

#4: Windows RT (2012)

#3: Windows 8 (2012)

#2: Windows Vista (2006)

#1: Windows Millennium Edition (2000)

Honorable mention: Windows 10 (2015)

1 posted on 04/05/2021 1:35:41 PM PDT by upchuck
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To: upchuck

WOW! Hang my head in shame. How could I forget?

Hat tip to friend Leo for pointing me to this article. Sorry.


2 posted on 04/05/2021 1:42:24 PM PDT by upchuck (Corporations don’t pay taxes. They collect them. From us. ~ h/t Little Ray)
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To: upchuck
I remembered going from the beauty of Windows XP Service Pack 2 to the nightmare of Vista. I did manage successfully to resist moving from Windows 7 to Windows 8. Skipped right to 10...but still miss 7.

Actually, I miss DOS. Once you figured it out, it was easy as hell.

3 posted on 04/05/2021 1:42:30 PM PDT by Bruce Campbells Chin
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To: upchuck

I would like to see a ranking of the best of Windows. For me, I was sad to see Windows 95 and Windows 7 leave the scene.

I am very glad that Windows 10 arrived after Windows 8 was foisted upon us. My business organization just recently migrated to Windows 10 and kept Windows 7 around for as long as they could.


4 posted on 04/05/2021 1:44:38 PM PDT by the_Watchman
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To: upchuck

The all suck. Windows 10 is the worst. Slow as molasses on a cold day and it takes FOREVER to update, with multiple reboots, which it seems to want to do every time I turn it on.


5 posted on 04/05/2021 1:44:46 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (“Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,)
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To: dayglored

Windows ping.


6 posted on 04/05/2021 1:44:47 PM PDT by upchuck (Corporations don’t pay taxes. They collect them. From us. ~ h/t Little Ray)
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To: upchuck

Vista was supremely terrible.

I recently upgraded my Office suite from version 2007 to 2016. Was running out of room in my email database, and archiving them doesn’t help much. I hate that it has its own navigation panes. Used to be if you wanted to save a document, you’d get a Windows window pop-up. Familiar and easy to copy and paste a directory. Now, it has all kinds of buttons and you have to physically navigate to the folder you want to save it to. And the toolbar ribbon moved a bunch of stuff around. For sending emails, used to be if you replied it would open the reply in a new window. Now it’s inside the reading pane, so you can’t easily look at another email while composing a fresh one. There is a way, it’s just not obvious and requires additional steps. Truly unintuitive, imo, especially for people who upgraded from previous versions.

Maybe there is a way to change the settings, I haven’t explored a lot. Just installed last week.

I have a Windows 10 Microsoft book. For the most part I like the tablet, it replaced an older laptop. But I installed a “skin” that allows it to appear and function like it was Windows 7.

And FWIW, I won’t buy their subscription online services. If they force me to use the cloud or the internet to write documents and create spreadsheets, I’ll move to some other software. Hopefully Office 2016 will endure as long as office 2007 did.


7 posted on 04/05/2021 1:46:16 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: upchuck

Windoze 10 should be top by far.


8 posted on 04/05/2021 1:47:53 PM PDT by wastedyears (The left would kill every single one of us and our families if they knew they could get away with it)
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To: upchuck

Wouldn’t that cover about all of them?


9 posted on 04/05/2021 1:51:04 PM PDT by LastDayz (A blunt and brazen Texan. I will not be assimilated.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Windows 10 has serious update problems. If you happen to be one of the ones afflicted by some of it worst problems then it really sucks. Like having it try to do a major update everyday and failing every time right near the end of the update and then waiting for it all to roll back. Next day it does the same thing all over again. It can put 20 years on your hard drive in a week.

All some of the most basic features ignore what they are set at and just do their own thing. Like not going to sleep as set. Searching for files in windows 10 does not work right either.


10 posted on 04/05/2021 1:52:13 PM PDT by Revel
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To: upchuck

Still using 7 despite lack of support.


11 posted on 04/05/2021 1:52:25 PM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: upchuck

If it wasn’t for Microsoft killing my printer drivers for XP, I would have stayed with it over Win 10. Upgrading to XP from Win 98 cured all of the resource problems I had with it’s predecessor. I’ve had no problems with Win 10 but liked XP much better.


12 posted on 04/05/2021 1:53:28 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (This space for rant.)
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To: upchuck

Anyone remember Microsoft Bob? I never knew anyone that actually installed it. I sure did get a chuckle out of the concept, and not in a good way for MS.


13 posted on 04/05/2021 1:54:19 PM PDT by Dutch Boy
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To: the_Watchman

The company I retired from was a Windows enterprise client and very dependent. I could have taken an old laptop when I retired but didn’t. I had just purchased a Mac Air and said goodbye to Windows problems with fear in my heart as to what Apple would do to me as I adapted.

Now seven years have passed on that Air and I just moved to an new Air with twice the memory and storage. Have bought an Ipad as well and Kindle to my hearts content, FaceTime my 11 grandkids and don’t sweat browsing whatever I want. Password setup is great. I will never buy an MS product again.


14 posted on 04/05/2021 1:54:27 PM PDT by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)
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To: upchuck
#1: Windows Millennium Edition (2000)

I will never forget Windows ME.
I had it installed and it was as if I went out a paid to have a virus installed in my computer. - Tom

15 posted on 04/05/2021 1:55:34 PM PDT by Capt. Tom (.It's COVID 2021 - The Events, not us, are still in charge -Tom)
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To: upchuck
Windows 3.0. I recall a Microsoft tech telling me that, yes, Microsoft understood that installing Windows 3.0 might have wiped out my D: drive. This was a known problem. He could do nothing to help me recover my data. Was there anything else that Microsoft could do for me?

Vista 1.0 had probems galore, but they fixed everything I needed fixed in the preview, or whatever they called it, to the first service pack.

16 posted on 04/05/2021 1:57:04 PM PDT by TChad (The MSM, having nuked its own credibility, is now bombing the rubble.)
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To: Revel

If I hadn’t started on Win 95, Win 98, and Win XP I would have no idea what you are talking about. Never had the Win 10 update problems other get, but I still like XP better.


17 posted on 04/05/2021 2:00:27 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (This space for rant.)
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To: the_Watchman

Windows XP was the best in my experience. Especially with Service Pack 2. Didn’t have a single system crash with XP.


18 posted on 04/05/2021 2:00:33 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain (#notmypedophile)
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To: upchuck

Win 10 is by far the worst. You at least had personal control over all the rest and almost none over Win 10. It will always belong to MS and never you.


19 posted on 04/05/2021 2:01:26 PM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: wastedyears

ABSOLUTELY...


20 posted on 04/05/2021 2:02:22 PM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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