Garmin Express is the software required to upload workouts from my Garmin 500 GPS tracker. The tracker is excellent and I have some other Garmin hardware and that is also well designed and functions reliably and as expected.

So, why Garmin, do you not do something about your awful software? When I first used it, probably about 8 years ago, it was ok, but a series of ‘upgrades’ as made put it in a downward spiral.

• Just sitting there, waiting for connection it uses a huge amount of CPU. As it is on my laptop, this makes it a battery-eater if I forget to close it.
• The login prompt loops. You have to learn that it has logged you in after the first attempt, so close the prompt and continue.
• It is stuck in an update loop. Perhaps that is the hardware, but the software says it was successful every time!
• The above update must be attempted every time you connect the device.
• It constantly re-ticks its own option “Always keep Garmin Express running in the background”. So I keep finding it started when it shouldn’t be, eating my laptop battery.

I would have thought that a large and wealthy company like Garmin could afford a few quid to get its key software in order? Or has shareholder profits become the only thing that matters in business?