A pair of writers have compiled a list of the worst-ever products released by Microsoft, with none other than Windows ME topping the table.

ME, which stood for Millennium Edition, was heavily panned on its release and was soon usurped by Windows XP after it was discovered that the 9x platform was unable to sustain anything forward-moving, according to Iain Thomson and Shaun Nichols of v3.co.uk.

Mr Thomson said it was the most "crash-prone" piece of software he has ever run on his computer, continuing: "It was as unstable as a Hollywood starlet with substance abuse issues, and many users got used to saving everything every five minutes just in case.

"IT administrators hated it for this reason and point-blank refused to roll it out in more than a few instances."

Clippy, Microsoft's much-maligned paperclip helper that has been endlessly lampooned in the media since its creation, was voted number two while Vista Capable branding came third due to its inability to be run on older systems at anything but the pace of a "drunken snail".

Microsoft recently pulled out of a deal with Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, after their planned advertising partnership fell through due to the content of MacFarlane's show, which included themes playing on the Holocaust and incest.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).