I've always hated the 16-color system palette in Windows 3.x. It's like the 16 CGA colors made even harsher, less useful and more ZX Spectrum-like.
(There may have been some logic behind it, since the Windows display system was designed for device independence, and had to handle graphics with arbitrary bit-depths; these 16 colors are somewhat strategically placed within the RGB color space, which maintains accuracy when using ordered dithering to render a higher-color image. Still a butt-ugly palette.)
However, the worst "color scheme" by far (if you can call it that) is the retarded present-day imperative of blinding you with harsh white backgrounds on anything and everything -- to the point that people have learned to expect them, and even react negatively when they're absent. It's been decades since they came up with the "desktop metaphor", and nobody's figured out yet that light-emitting displays are not paper.
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