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Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Microsoft’s best-selling products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software.

Microsoft has footholds in other markets besides operating systems and office suites. The company also markets both computer hardware products. Microsoft brand name has been known by majority of people most part of their life.

Throughout its history the company has been design and develop many software and hardware. But have you ever wonder what are the worst Microsoft products ever produced and released to the market?

These are the Microsoft’s products whose main claim to fame will be the number of "worst" lists they make. The worst Microsoft products ever are:

Auto PC

Year: 1998-2001
Auto PC is a brand of carputer (the integration of a personal computer in an automotive environment) jointly developed by Clarion and Microsoft.
Click here to see more detail: Auto PC

Microsoft Bob

Year: 1995-1996
Microsoft Bob was a Microsoft software product, released in March 1995, which provided a new, nontechnical interface to desktop computing operations. Despite its ambitious nature, Bob failed to penetrate the market and was one of Microsoft’s more visible product failures. The idea is to turn the Windows interface into a cartoon.
Click here to see more detail: Microsoft Bob

Cairo (Operating System)

Year: 1991-1996
Cairo was the code name for a project at Microsoft from 1991 to 1996 (Cairo was the codename of Windows NT 4.0). Cairo was announced before the release of NT 3.1. Its charter was to build technologies for a next generation operating system that would fulfill Bill Gates’ vision of "information at your fingertips." Cairo never shipped, although portions of its technologies have since appeared in other products.
Click here to see more detail: Cairo Operating System

MSN Music Store / URGE

Year: MSN Music Store (2004) & URGE (2006)
In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple’s iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were negligible. The store utilized Microsoft’s Windows Media Player application and proprietary Windows Media Format files (protected .wma files).

In 2006, Microsoft shut down its MSN Music Store and redirected customers to its Zune Marketplace. People who had patronized the MSN Music Store bought files governed by Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio Digital Rights Management 9. Microsoft abandoned that format when it shut down the service, hanging device makers that supported WMA 9 out to dry.
Click here to see more detail: MSN Music Store / URGE

Origami / Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)

Year: 2006
Launched in 2006, this handheld PC (code-named Origami Project), was yet another was yet another Microsoft PDA. But have you ever seen anyone actually out in the world using it?
Click here to see more detail: Origami / Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)

OS/2

Year: 1987-2006
The OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM by the Joint Development Agreement in August 1985. The collaboration between IBM and Microsoft unraveled in 1990, between the releases of Windows 3.0 and OS/2 1.3. Windows 3.0 became a tremendous success, in contrast to OS/2, which had not caught on with large numbers of users.
Click here to see more detail: OS/2

SPOT Watch / MSN Smart Watch

Year: 2003-2008
SPOT is Microsoft initiative to attempt to create "smart" software and hardware that will personalize household electronics and everyday devices to make their uses more versatile. This product is a wearable computer. As of April 23, 2008 the line has been officially discontinued.
Click here to see more detail: SPOT Watch / MSN Smart Watch

Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA)

Year: 2001
Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is an anti-piracy system created by Microsoft that enforces Microsoft Windows online validation of the authenticity of several recent Microsoft operating systems when accessing several Microsoft Windows services, such as Windows Update, and downloading Windows components from the Microsoft Download Center. Specifically, WGA covers Windows XP and Windows Vista. WGA can be wrong so many times when it attempts to "decide" whether your copy of Windows is "genuine". Moreover, a crack can be easily obtained from the Internet.
Click here to see more detail: Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA)

Windows Me

Year: 2000
Windows Me or Windows Millennium Edition is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft. Compared with other releases of Windows, Windows Me had a short shelf-life of just over a year; it was soon replaced by the NT-based Windows XP. A PC World article dubbed Windows Me the "Mistake Edition" and listed it as the fourth "Worst Tech Product of All Time". This was the real millennium bug.
Click here to see more detail: Windows Me

Windows Vista

Year: 2007
On January 30, 2007, Windows Vista was released worldwide. The release of Windows Vista came more than five years after the introduction of its predecessor, Windows XP, the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft Windows. Windows Vista has many incompatibility issue with hardware. It requires a lot of human interaction to clear security dialogue box warnings. And this expensive OS requires a lot of hardware resource.

Windows Vista takes six years of development but is instantly hated by hordes of PC professionals and enthusiasts. Windows Vista deserves to be classed as one of the worst technology!
Click here to see more detail: Windows Vista

ActiMates

Year: 1997-2000
Microsoft decides to try its hand at toys, with a line of talking dolls based on licensed characters from PBS’s kiddie shows. ActiMates were a series of interactive toys released by Microsoft in February, 1997, which were in the form of licensed dolls which could interact with certain episodes of their respective television series on VHS videocassette which were bundled with the dolls. Children were unimpressed, while parents were unwilling to cough up $100 per doll. The company discontinued the dolls in 2000.
Click here to see more detail: ActiMates

Microsoft Mira

Year: 2003
Mira (Smart Display) was a Microsoft initiative to use a portable touchscreen LCD monitor as a thin client for PCs, connecting via Wi-Fi.

Mira was announced in early 2002, released in early 2003 and cancelled in December 2003, having never achieved more than negligible market penetration.
Click here to see more detail: Microsoft Mira

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