courtesy of:
The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time - PCWorld
Syncronys SoftRAM (1995)
Back in 1995, when RAM cost $30 to $50 a megabyte and Windows 95 apps were demanding more and more of it, the idea of "doubling" your system memory by installing a $30 piece of software sounded mighty tempting. The 700,000 users who bought Syncronys's SoftRAM products certainly thought so. Unfortunately, that's not what they got.
It turns out that all SoftRAM really did was expand the size of Windows' hard disk cache--something a moderately savvy user could do without any extra software in about a minute. And even then, the performance boost was negligible. The FTC dubbed Syncronys's claims "false and misleading," and the company was eventually forced to pull the product from the market and issue refunds. After releasing a handful of other bad Windows utilities, the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1999. It will not be missed.
from wikipedia:
SoftRAM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FTC investigation
In December 1995, the German computing journal c't disassembled the program and determined that it did not even attempt to do what it was meant to do.[6] In fact, the data passed through the VxD completely unaltered so that no compression whatsoever could have taken place. The actual drivers were in fact slightly modified versions of code examples taken from Microsoft's "Windows Development Kit". Still, the program would try to pretend that it increased system resources, by silently increasing the size of the swap file on Windows 3.1 and by giving false information on the current state of the system. Even worse, the program was compiled with the debug flag on and so runs slower than the original driver from Microsoft. A further test by PC Magazine revealed that SoftRAM took the same amount of time to move through systems that contained varying amounts of RAM;[7] leading the magazine's technical editor to call SoftRAM completely "devoid of value".[8] Another study by Dr. Dobb's Journal came to the same conclusions.[3] Tests by PC World determined that the program did little more than increase the size of the hard drive cache--something that a knowledgeable user could easily do without buying additional software. Furthermore, the company used the "Designed for Windows 95" logo on the packaging when the product had not been approved by Microsoft for use with the operating system.
The Federal Trade Commission began an investigation in late 1995. It ultimately concluded that Syncronys' claims about SoftRAM were "false and misleading". It also concluded that "SoftRAM95 does not increase RAM in a computer using Windows 95; nor does the product enhance the speed, capacity, or other performance measures of a computer using Windows 95".[1] The investigation prompted the company to recall both SoftRAM and SoftRAM95 from the market in December 1995. Several individual customers filed suit against the company as well. Syncronys settled with the FTC and the suing customers in 1996. As part of the FTC settlement, it agreed to give rebates to any customers who requested them.[9]
Syncronys eventually filed for bankruptcy in 1999 after releasing other poorly received tools.[10] A large number of its creditors were customers who hadn't received their rebates for SoftRAM.[9]
Its a software back in 1995 you buy it $30 to increase your virtual memory. Its a total rip off.
Worst software
Originally Posted by P-Chan
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