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Microsoft Acquires Winternals and Sysinternals
SJasperson writes "In a move that will be good for Redmond but may have consequences for the rest of us, Microsoft has acquired Winternals and Sysinternals. This gives them well-known developers Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell as well as dozens of well-loved and much-praised utilities, both commercial and freeware. Though Mark says on his blog that the Sysinternals site will remain 'for the time being,' this would be a good time to download the latest version of essential Windows tools like Process Explorer before they can go mysteriously missing or be locked up behind the wall of Windows Genuine Advantage."
be locked up behind the wall of Windows Genuine Advantage.
You're complaining that Microsoft expects you to use a purchased version of Windows? WTF
Noooooooooooooooo!!!! WHY, God, WHY!?!
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel...
After months of ripping out what's not important, Windows Vista is finally getting a heart and a brain. Alas, no courage is yet available.
Who Microsoft acquire next ? CowboyNeal ?
How long before this one's gone, too?
Just what is wrong with Microsoft making sure pirates, who steal software, don't get to easily download and install other Microsoft software.
Windows isn't OSS and Microsoft has every right to protect it's resources, thus Genuine Advantage. You don't have to use Windows.
Q. What are you announcing?
Resistance is futile.
Q. How does this acquisition affect Winternals' customers?
Cost is going up, delivery is going to suck.
Q. Will you continue selling Winternals' portfolio of products?
There is no such thing anymore.
Q. Why is it a good thing for Winternals' customers?
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
Q. Will I still receive technical support and if so for how long?
How long can you tread water?
Q. Why is Microsoft acquiring Winternals and Sysinternals?
To assimilate.
Q. What exactly is a Technical Fellow?
Microsoft Bob.
Q. How many Technical Fellows are there at Microsoft?
There can be only one.
Q. My Product Assurance Contract with Winternals on Administrator's Pak (or other tool) is about to expire (or has just expired). Can I still renew it?
You're new around here, aren't you?
Q. What were the terms? How much did Microsoft pay for Winternals? Was it a cash or stock deal?
A few spare souls that have not been allocated yet.
Make a torrent of the latest tools STAT!
The (near) monopoly maker of flat tires buys out all of the patch companies.
Before it gets slashdotted:
Q. What are you announcing?
A. Winternals and Sysinternals have been acquired by Microsoft. Winternals is a leading provider of systems recovery tools for Windows-based enterprises worldwide and Sysinternals is one of the leading community and enthusiast sites for people interested in information about the internals of the Windows operating system.
Q. How does this acquisition affect Winternals' customers?
A. Microsoft will stop and kill everything as soon as all legal, hardcopy contracts are over
Q. Will you continue selling Winternals' portfolio of products?
A. No, it will get integrated halfly into Windows 2006 though.
Q. Why is it a good thing for Winternals' customers?
A. It is a good thing because now they can't spend any money anymore on stupid tools and they can finally switch to Linux
Q. Will I still receive technical support and if so for how long?
A. Winternals will continue to provide technical support for the current term of your Product Assurance Contract.
Q. Why is Microsoft acquiring Winternals and Sysinternals?
A. Extend, embrace and extuingish.
Q. What exactly is a Technical Fellow?
A. The guy that will come install Linux on your servers
Q. How many Technical Fellows are there at Microsoft?
A. A lot, they are undercover penguins.
Q. My Product Assurance Contract with Winternals on Administrator's Pak (or other tool) is about to expire (or has just expired). Can I still renew it?
A. No, there are no plans for renewal.
Q. What were the terms? How much did Microsoft pay for Winternals? Was it a cash or stock deal?
A. Microsoft threatened with a lawsuit over some of the programs.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
I completely refuse to work on or with the Windows family of operating systems, why would I want to download anything from sysinternals? However, congrats to the sysinternals guys, I think everybody recognises how talented they are.
I love their tools too, but why the commotion?
Good for them. Now they get fat paychecks, good bonuses, and they work for the empire.
And I'd bet that if MSFT offered you $$$$ for whatever you were making, and a fat paycheck with good bonuses - you'd be a fool to not take it...
= Grow a brain...
It's not the "purchased version" part that I'm worried about but the "of Windows" part. I'm complaining that I can't use the utilities with Wine (an independent implementation of Win32 spec, commonly used with *BSD and *Linux) or with ReactOS (an operating system consisting of Wine on top of a reimplementation of the NT kernel).
Just out of curiosity (and since I'm not a Windows user, except for a copy I have installed on a virtual machine to play with), is there any way to avoid getting WGA-ed if you turn on Automatic Updates?
I just turned Auto-Updates off completely, figuring I can just roll the VM back if it gets infected with something, but I'm curious as to whether the user has any control over WGA's installation, or if it just gets slipped in by MS the second you allow automatic installation of updates.
Can you get just the security patches, but refuse to install everything else? Or is WGA considered a "security" patch? (Which would be suitably ironic -- it's 'security' all right, just not for the user.)
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
This has to be seen in the context of anti-interoperability action of Microsoft and orders from the competition authorities e.g. in the European Union. Still Microsoft fails to comply with the documentation orders of the European Union.
Now Microsoft takes over tools which enable interoperability with its plattform and puts them under their licensing control. What we will see next is a restrictive Microsoft EULA for it which discourages use for reengineering or interoperability for Ms competitors etc.
Worth to file a complaint at the responsible EU competition consumer liason office.
Does anyone else find it a little funny that Microsoft bought out Winternals to get Mark Russinovich? According to a Microsoft employee, "Mark is one of the top five or 10 people in the world when it comes to Windows internals." I'd believe that, but isn't it just a little funny that Microsoft had to go to a 3rd party company to find an expert in the internals of Windows?
That I, for one, welcome our new monopolistic overlords...
Some of Mark's blog entries in the past have cited shortcomings and oversights in Windows systems and he has often provided utilities to get around/address them. Now that Mark is a Microsoft employee, will such criticism be forthcoming, or silenced?
Mark's investigations into Windows workings have been very informational and useful over the years. Now that he'll be under NDA and non-compete...
The reason for the acquisition is obvious. The programmers at Microsoft were constantly complaining about not knowing what processes were running on their machine, or the need for a utility to defrag their pagefile, etc. Most software development shops would develop the necessary tools. Microsoft, not having a clue what's actually going on in their OS, decided to purchase the company that made these tools...
So what happens to the Best Buy lawsuit?
Sure you can. Winternals and Sysinternals utilities don't require WGA and there's nothing but Slashdot FUD stating that they will require WGA. Download them now, burn them to Blu-Ray disc, and use them forever.
For more information, click here.
I've found Process Explorer and Registry Explorer to be great tools to help find out exactly what's going on in a Windows box, and they're great for tracking down malware. They're a hell of a lot more useful than the ctrl-alt-del dialog box in XP.
I'm sure with Vista coming out soon that Redmond would love to obfuscate or disappear these utilities that would help let people know what Vista is really doing under the hood.
Well some good reasons people are mad is that when the acquire they often either destroy or manipulate the product. For example, they will purchase a company and then simply stop developing or distributing its products to stifle competition or a product that they do not like. They also like to force you to own the latest version Windows to get the tools, as if every one only uses Windows and not Wine or is not a repair tech simply looking for some utilities. They also like to manipulate products to hide their DRM or to not be able to do things they do not like in the OS. For example, Process Explorer will now not be able to see that special DLL or hook they add to their software for DRM, security purposes, or maybe NSA acccess. While this might not seem like much imagine trying to locate the cause for a problem in an application or the system when parts of the application or OS are being hidden from you. They also remove tools they feel might be used in a way they do not like. For example, tools that allow you to mount registries remotely and manipulate them without MS security making your life miserable as in tools that do not hide keys from you or lock them down. They also like to add anti-features like phone-home and to force you to register. That is why people get so pissed when this happens.
Yet another proof that Microsoft can't behave like a normal market player. They fear even those working for them. They feel the need to control everything under the sun.
You cannot proceed from the informal to formal by formal means
Well done, sir, well done.
I was having a good week until I read that.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I smell a zealot with a fistful of mod points... why is this flamebait? I think the parent brings up a valid point here.
body massage!
Anyone know of a single .zip that includes all the sysinternals downloadable programs? I started to download a few and realized it would take me hours clicking to each page.
No, he's complaining of being constantly suspected to be a thief by Microsoft, as well as, sometimes, being a collateral victim of malfunctionning paranoid DRM
That's preposterous, who in their right mind would beli
Microsoft have determined your installation of Windows includes non-registered components. Failure to comply will result in the shutdown of your operating system and a visit from the BSA Stormtroopers.
ike it was something out of Star Wars with Darth Vader and all. Sheesh, get real!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
WHY, God, WHY!?!
Because you chose to run Microsoft software. These are the consequences.
Developers: We can use your help.
Some Microsoftie marked the parent comment as flamebait. However, it seems likely that Microsoft bought SysInternals to silence a web site that provided software of far higher quality than software from Microsoft.
Anything SysInternals did was the best, and made the sloppiness of Microsoft software obvious.
Microsoft will continue to meet all Winternals customer support agreements through their terms.
was probably supposed to read
Microsoft will continue to meet all Winternals customer support agreements, but on their terms.
the same typo occured in several places.
<bashful_grin>Just trying to be helpful.</bashful_grin>
Microsoft needed to hire these fellows because they're probably the only people on the planet who could properly document the Windows API for the EU.
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
At first glance I'm inclined to go along with the preponderance of thought here that this will be bad in the long run for users of Winternals products. I don't know of another company that has produced such good basic Windows utilities that are free and that work well with little overhead for so long.
OTOH, it will be interesting to see if and when Sysmon, Filemon and other tools get integrated into the Windows administrative tools. Or am I dreaming? I mean, after all didn't performance monitor and disk defrag and other utilities also come from companies that MS assimilated?
Hooray for the Sysinternals guys who will undoubtedly be kickin' it in the Carribean soon. Woe (maybe) to the rest of us.
What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
wget -r --domains=www.sysinternals.com,sysinternals.com http://www.sysinternals.com/
I've followed Mark's advice and used some of his utilities for years. I will be forever grateful for the things I learned by analyzing the source code to some of the utilities. I think Mark is entitled to cash in on his effort, but I'm not very optimistic about the quality of stuff that will come from Winternals from now on. Mark (and Winternals) was independent and worked at an independent pace, which is going to degrade now that there are layers of bureaucracy added.
On the other hand, the Winternals utilities represent about 10% (IMO) of the utilities needed to really analyze and fix Windows when it malfunctions. I'm too old to do this myself, but maybe a group of ambitious analysts could step up and continue the good work. Even more important, maybe a good group of analysts could develop a methodology for analyzing the OS and then point the way toward needed utilities.
I'm actually feeling a little grief over the demise of Winternals as an independent company.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that we haven't seen a blog entry from Mark since May. Apparently the silence has already begun.
Behold, the power of fleas...
They want to halt all the tech calls, gray hair and suicides caused by this.
I've really been considering switching to Mac when the Core 2 Duos come out rather than deal with the looming hell of Vista for my desktop machine (my servers will still be running Debian). With Norton long gone to uselessness, Sysinternals was one of my top places for getting tools that MS should have provided and didn't. Just one more nail in the coffin.
(Yes I realize that Apple is just a mini-MS as far as being evil where they can, but that seems to be mostly in the iPod stuff and going after the press. On the desktop side 10.5 looks far, far more appealing than Vista.)
I started mirroring the sysinternals.com site with HTTrack as soon as I read about this.
If your motherboard dies, you can replace it with a new motherboard without buying a new copy of Windows. That's according to Microsoft's licence.
If you just want to upgrade, though, and your old motherboard is working fine, then it's considered that you bought a new computer, and need a new copy of Windows.
That's assuming that said copy of Windows is an OEM version, rather than retail box.
Retail box you can transfer to your heart's content, as there's no restriction to a specific computer.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
mark then put on his high heels, lipstick, and sun-dress, and passed around cocktails on a tray at billg's dinner party.
free software, open standards, open file formats, no software patents.
Check out http://www.osronline.com/ . They have some similar utilities and are the place to go for windows device driver questions and debug. They are the folks that finally fixed much of the DDK documenation . I still have the mugs they gave away for finding doc errors.
By the way, I highly recommend their classes. I have taken a bunch of them and I am pretty sure that these folks know windows internals better than any other organization...maybe even MS.
-- soldack
http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecove ry/locksmith.asp
what a surprise... Microsoft takes down the locksmith. Anyone have it for me?
Thanks
stuff |
I am almost irrationally sad about this. Microsoft is clearly getting a couple of deeply gifted people. But I consider several of the Sysinternals utilities, especially Process Monitor, essential for good Windows Health. Tuning performance or squashing spyware of friends' PCs or what have you, they write great stuff. Plus their web site is a great, independent resource to learn about some of these internal issues.
I suppose a very optimistic person would assume that functions like seing what processes spawned other processes, have files open, have sockets open, etc., will now be available in future Windows versions. I guess I must be cynical, because I'm feeling a sense of loss and sadness. Thanks for the great stuff, Sysinternals.
Some of you already have those cute little shirts on that say disco sucks, right? That's not all that sucks.-Frank Zappa
Then the fucktards will be forced to either use BSD or Linux or go with micro$hit. If they go with Micro$hit they will spend all of their money by servicing their machine when it is h4x0r3). Once those fucktards go so far into debt they will have no choice but to kill themselves. W00T! W00T!
Russinovich & Cogswell were the developers that "knew more about Windows internals than Microsoft".
I've enjoyed using their utilities for security work. Their articles were always interesting.
My fave was probably the one where they tried to run Windows with the bare amount of processes/services, kind of similar to a halted unix system.
I hope they keep on releasing the good utilities after the acquisition.
I hate it when this kinda shit happens....anyone remember RAV antivirus? That was some excellent Linux mail server antivirus, now, you can NOT even buy it. Buy, screw, kill...kinda sounds like jack the ripper, eh?
----- I have bad karma for a reason! -----
or does the systernals site appear to be getting slammed right about now? really laggy and slow it seems.
Most of those links are 404'ed now.
...and will remain so with Vista.
How would you feel about buying a car if it came with a whole set of tools that were specifically for repairing that car? Wouldn't that seem to imply that the car is expected to break down so often that the toolkit is a must-have item? I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't regard that as a ringing endorsement of the quality of the car.
If they are buying Winternals, they are acknowledging that the utilites those guys offered are both useful and frequently necessary to keep Windows running and/or fix it when it breaks badly. They'll almost certainly end up as part of Vista.
Given the choice between an OS that is low-maintenance and seldom has problems, and one that breaks so often it comes with a ton of handy-dandy utilities to assist repairs and maintenance, I know which one I'd pick.
Well it looks like you can make money with open source.
Didn't they just smack the crap out of the dipstick squad?
And now they're being Bought by MS. Cha Ching!
If I were Mark, I'd pull the plug and retire or bail as soon as any agreement allowed and maybe start a parallel venture (if allowed) or an entire separate one if necessary.
Who will guard the guards?
A great number of the capababilities in their primary product - ERD Commander - have now been duplicated in BART PE-based bootdisks like Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win). I recently evaluated ERD Commander specifically against UBCD4Win, and in the hands of a well-trained user the latter did most of what we needed to do. It wasn't as slick, and there were some ways in which ERD Commander was much better, but the very high price of ERD Commander (at least for a small consulting shop like mine) made it very difficult to buy with the marginal additional functionality it adds. On the other hand, without UBCD4Win, it would have been quite attractive.
I'm guessing we're not the only ones noticing this... so the sale makes sense. Better sell out to MS rather that try to compete with 'free'.
-R
ps- Note my caveat "did most of what we needed to do". I'm not claiming that UBCD4Win is an ERD Commander replacement for everyone...
So, the question is, does MS continue with the law suit started by Winternals against Best Buy and take the chance of pissing out a huge retailer, "quitely" resolve the matter or drop it? On the other hand did the possible payoff make Winternals a better buy?
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity but they've always worked for me" - HST
How about not using a cargo cult, closed source, unnecessary and contra-productive format for a TORRENT?
RAR is only Cargo Cult behaviour. It doesn't prove ANYTHING (anyone can RAR), it means extra programs needs downloading, it means non-free programs on a computer, it means less seeders, it provides almost no space saving (on media), it's a pain when playing media and the torrent format provides all the checksumming and redownloading needed.
It is time to stop using obsolete and freedom-unfriendly software. It is waaaay past time using a format that takes away all the good things about using torrents, especially downloading selected parts first or only.
Oh, and if you absolutely MUST pack files together for a non-torrent reason, use something that is freely (in all senses) available to all people, not just to a select elite. Zip would be favourite, as all modern desktops handle it OOTB.
Thank you.
Does this buy from Microsoft has relations with SONY rootkit scandal?
or remain as visible as Windows Defender
I'll make no objection if a distribution of any OS restricts supported, distro-funded and distro-specific, downloads to its paying customers.
It is, after all, the reason why OEM Linspire has a token presence in big-box retail.
Nor will I object to demanding a show of proof. You are not entitled to a free ride on my dime.
usage: %s [-l] [-n]
-l Log to stable file
-n Exercise NTOSKRNL
Running stress test. Press Ctrl-C to quit.
Exercising WIN32K
Exercising NTOSKRNL
Logging calls to crash.log
Copyright (C) 1996 Mark Russinovich
Funny thing is this still causes crashes on XP... 10 years and going...
The locksmith tool has been moved into the Administrator's Pak.
P ak/Default.aspx
http://www.winternals.com/Products/Administrators
How long will MS allow you to download the BSOD emulating screen saver?
h tmlBlueScreen Screen Saver
:-)
BlueScreen Screen Saver
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/BlueScreen.
Google aquires former Microsoft developers Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell
make a file with the contents in that link
if you haven't, set up your http_proxy environment variable for wget:
export http_proxy=http://proxy.com:8080/
wget --proxy=on -i yourfile.txt
if you have no proxy, it's cake:
wget --proxy=on -i yourfile.txt
I have to believe the reason the creators of Winternals cashed in is that the uncovering of massive, unlicensed use at Geek Squad demonstrated that Winternals was just enabling hacks to charge way, way too much for supporting PCs.
I know if I had a tool of mine abused in that way, I'd look to get out of the business. This sounds like as good a way to do that as any.
[pauses]
Darth Vader: Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.
Luke: Hmmm... well, how's your health plan? Will I get stock options?
of patent applications filings...
I suspect ms is looking to treasure hunt a handful of patents... what's their filing count now?
1,800? 2,250? 3,157 a year the past few years?
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Someone please organize a pro-bono heist of Russiniovich's soul from Seattle & give it back to him.
Honestly though, I can see why this would happen & I'm actually suprised it didn't sooner. If you were a large, publicly traded software interest, how would you deal with a third party appearing (being?) more knowlegeable than you about your own system's intrinsics? Yes, he made Windows more usable for many of us, but when it comes down to it, it's what the overall PR impact looks like to the marketing dep't that matters...
I can only hope that this simply means little more than MSDN hosting for the current offering of tools. If they start retiring Mark's apps, I'm going Black Friday.
Pi Ran Out
Heh. I wonder if they'll still keep the BSOD screensaver around on the website now?
Han shot first.
... to believe that Microsoft will actually start giving away Winternals software for free now ... Sounds like a perfect candidate to include with the OS versions targeted at corporations.
Ubuntu, here I come.
Chris Knight is my hero.
this would be a good time to download the latest version of essential Windows tools like Process Explorer before they can go mysteriously missing or be locked up behind the wall of Windows Genuine Advantage."
Or, you can actually buy a legitimate license for Windows and not worry about "Windows Genuine Advantage."
Well we can only wish him luck. I'm sure he knows what he is doing. Maybe he might do something with Microsofts security profile.
Severely depressed.
..as if millions of slashdotters cried out and then were suddenly silenced.
"This is not the rootkit you are looking for."
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
My GPL based si_installer let's you easily download and install all of the utilities on http://systernals.com/.
If you're going to wget, may I suggest playing nice with rates, delays, and non-essential files:
t ml -X /Video,/Chat,/Forum,/Blog
wget -w 2 --limit-rate=5k -m http://www.sysinternals.com/SysinternalsSiteMap.h
A relatively reasonable 81MB and 553 files.
And don't redistribute. As a software author, beyond it being illegal I consider it to be quite disrespectful to the authors if you were to redistribute these files in violation of their license. On the other hand, it certainly seems like a good idea to make a personal copy at this moment, and that certainly IS in accordance with their license.
Looking for freelance Actionscript (Flash/Flex) or ColdFusion work and/or freelance developers. Email me, put Slashdot
the website is already changed and a big bold screen of "Winternals acquired by MS" sticker on the front page.
about his views on rootkits etc... http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/062606-russi novich-rootkits.html
If you think WGA is bad, wait for Microsoft's DCM. First you won't be able to write any drivers for their OS without thier signature, then who knows how far they'll go. You'll probably have to pay a dollar(US) just to copy a picture you took on your digital camera. Not to mention the activities they will restrict.
I just took a peek at the EULA.TXT included in a fresh download (PsTools .zip file) vs. a copy that came with the same download a couple months ago (file dated Jan 11 2006), and it's *completely* changed. The new version is a "free for personal use only" sorta thing whereas the previous EULA was free for all uses short of infringment and void of warranty.
Have to see how well those EULAs hold up. IANAL of course, but it looks to me like if you're a sysadmin at a commercial entity, you can't use their previously-free tools for free any more. Pretty sad.
Somebody please tell me I'm reading it wrong....
teeker
Must go over to Digg and see how they are wetting their pants over this.... ;-p
AT&ROFLMAO
The only 7Zip de-compressor I know of for mac os X is the command line utility: p7zip.
It's a bit of a pain to find and install - but it gets the job done.
I just went through the whole site and found 113 different programs, unlike the 100 that are being shared, I'll try to get a download up and running as soon as I have them all done.
Utinam me logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.
Smart move Ballmer. You might not like them but they ARE a well run business.
I hope that they paid him enough - it sounds like it - for him to stomach it there. Fortunately, he knows that he can succeed on his own but hopefully he hasn't signed off every right to his work or the ability to continue to do that work if/when he leaves MS. I'd like to look at the contract.
I'm just hoping that this obviously bright and hardworking fella didn't make a deal that he can't wiggle out of.
You think there will ever be a new edition of this great book?
Double Shock and twin waterfalls of tears! Can there be anyone who can possibly understand my sorrow? I want to shout it out! From the botoom of my heart and with all my might!
I don't need to test my programs.. I have an error correcting modem.
You could see it coming with the way Mark was courting Microsoft.. Refining Process Explorer to add MSN Search to it, noting on his website which Microsoft QB articles recommend each of his tools, etc. Good for him.
How the fuck can two people doing third party apps be *better* than the people that design the frigging OS? Sure, they might be more on the ball as coders, but no way does any company buy another one because they have better engineers with more knowledge of their own bloody product.
This is a 'remove' job by MS - no doubt about it.
For comparison, here are the EULAs from two versions of Process Explorer. The new one is far more restrictive, and over *10 times* as long.
Process Explorer 10.11 (old version):
This software is provided "as is" and use of the software is at your own risk. Sysinternals disclaims any and all warranties, whether express, implied or statutory, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement of third-party rights. Sysinternals does not warrant that the software is free of defects.
You are allowed to use software published by Sysinternals at home or at work without paying a commercial license fee provided that you downloaded the software yourself directly from Sysinternals, and:
* Use the software on computers for which you are the primary user; or
* Use the software on computers for which there is no primary user
(e.g. servers, including Terminal Servers) and you are a full-time
employee of the company that owns the computer; or
* Use the software on computers within your residence
A commercial license is required to use the software in any way not covered above, including for example:
* Redistributing the software in any manner, including by computer
media, a file server, an email attachment, etc.
* Embedding the software in or linking it to another program
* Use of the software for technical support on customer computers
Sales of commercial licenses support Sysinternals product development and assure that this Web site continues to offer valuable, up-to-date tools. Established software companies redistribute these utilities and incorporate the code into their products because this offers the potential to save significant development time. Sysinternals commercial licenses are priced according to the complexity of the licensed code and its role in the target application. If you are interested in licensing Sysinternals tools or source code for redistribution or for inclusion with or as part of a software product, please contact licensing@sysinternals.com.
10.2 (new version):
Sysinternals - Information on Terms of Use
ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS.
The services that Sysinternals provides to you are subject to the following Terms of Use ("TOU"). Sysinternals reserves the right to update the TOU at any time without notice to you. The most current version of the TOU can be reviewed by clicking on the "Terms of Use" hypertext link located at the bottom of our Web pages.
DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES.
Sysinternals provides you with access to a variety of resources, including utilities, download areas, communication forums and information (collectively "Services"). The Services, including any updates, enhancements, and/or new features are subject to the TOU.
PERSONAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE LIMITATION.
Unless otherwise specified, the Services are for your personal and non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information, software, products or services obtained from the Services.
PRIVACY AND PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION.
See the Privacy Statement disclosures relating to the collection and use of your information.
NOTICE SPECIFIC TO SOFTWARE AVAILABLE ON THIS WEB SITE.
Any software that is made available to download from the Services ("Software") is the copyrighted work of Sysinternals and/or its suppliers. Use of the Software is governed by the terms of the end user license agreement, if any, which accompanies or is included with the Software ("License Agreement"). The Software is made available
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle
I have needed this utility for YEARS and I only just found out it exists!
/.
This is why I read
Chicks Have All The Fun
"Honestly, the outrageous FUD and conspiracy theories the rabidly anti-Microsoft crowd..."
Seriously, it's difficult to be outrageous when talking about Microsoft's abuses. They've already thought of most of the possibilities. People who don't work with them all the time, and who are not technically knowledgeable, generally are aware of less than 0.1% of the abuses, in my opinion.
For example, did you ever wonder how Microsoft Office became the standard office software? It's because there is a 2-tier marketplace. The first tier is that people pay a lot of money for Microsoft Office. The second tier is that people buy a cheap pirated copy of Microsoft Office. That's why Microsoft's competition was extinguished.
It is my opinion that Microsoft deliberately allows piracy, or, more accurately, is careful not to stop most of the pirates. Several years ago I got very, very upset about this, because the pirates were interfering with part of my business, reselling legal software. At that time, it was possible to call the Microsoft legal department and actually get someone on the line; now they have closed that hole. I called and ranted and ranted about the 6 distributors who were ALL selling pirated Microsoft product.
The result was that Microsoft was accidentally placed in a position that the company needed to show some action. Otherwise they were communicating too publicly that Microsoft was pursuing a deliberate policy of allowing low-level piracy. There was a court case; Microsoft's legal department asked me to be a witness, and Microsoft won its case.
Microsoft is far, far more abusive than you apparently know.
The end of free PsExec? Say this is just a bad joke..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Bill Gates is no longer with Microsoft. Besides, Ballmer looks more like Locutus already.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
I doubt it, when you agree to the EULA's they are cleared of any damages/injuries that might be caused by using this ( shrinkwrapped, not approved for medical devices ) software.
Sure you can sue most anyone for anything, but you have little hope for a win in this case.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I am certainly aware that Microsoft employees have been recommending SysInternals free utilities over Microsoft's sloppily coded and primitive utilities that do the same thing.
I am also very aware that Microsoft has no utilities at all for some of the Windows functions people need, and Microsoft employees have long been recommending SysInternals utilities for those functions.
Remember, the Windows Command Line Interface and command line utilities are upgraded DOS programs. DOS is shockingly primitive compared to the Linux command line interfaces, for example. And not all of the DOS utilities have been converted completely to 32-bit Windows; they fail in weird ways that have not been fixed even though the failures have been discussed thoroughly over the years.
The SysInternals programmers are some of the finest Windows coders in the world, if not THE finest, in my opinion. However, I don't think the SysInternals employees will stay long in the abusive and adversarial and socially backward and ignorant Microsoft climate.
I think what will happen is that Microsoft will embrace and extend and poison the SysInternals software, as they have done for the dBase language, or, much more recently, for Giant's AntiSpyware.
Microsoft began tinkering with Giant AntiSpyware, which became Windows Defender. Giant was considered the best in its field. Now the Microsoft version has problems. Sometimes, for example, it will fail, and re-installing will not fix the failure.
Of course, Giant AntiSpyware was only a bandaid for problems that exist because of Microsoft's sloppy coding that leaves huge numbers of vulnerabilities. Remember that Microsoft makes more money if there are more vulnerabilities, because people buy new computers as their old computer become slow because of infestation.
Anyone who thinks that an OS is complicated, and therefore must have vulnerabilities, should buy a secure OS like OpenBSD for $5,000 per copy. The really expensive operating system organizations can hire extremely skilled programmers who know how to eliminate vulnerabilities. Oh, wait, sorry, OpenBSD is FREE, and is coded by volunteers.
Microsoft is a socially backward and adversarial organization, in my experience, but they aren't so dumb they don't know how to hire people who can write secure software. The reason for the huge number of vulerabilities seems to be that, when a company effectively has a temporary monopoly, more vulnerabilities make more money.
http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3504780
Maybe the guy has some actual documentation about Windows internals they can use...
Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell announced they are moving out of their parents' basements.
Some old downloads do not seem to contain any EULA at all (just a readme.txt with some general disclaimers)
more recent downloads (february 2006) contain a short and easily understandable EULA.
All zip files I just downloaded from sysinternals have a change date of 18.7.2006 17:53 GMT+1 (yesterday) and contain a changed and much longer EULA, that also mentions that sysinternals is a part of microsoft now
Old EULA:
NEW EULA:
"Microsoft expended massive amounts of effort making it [Microsoft Office] a better product..."
.DOC file, and you will be able to open it
again in Microsoft Office.
The last version I've used is Office 2000. It is remarkably unstable, even after all the service packs are applied.
Sometimes, after several hours of editing, Microsoft Office stops being able to read the file you've been saving. When that happens, open the file in Open Office, save it as a
Lotus Smartsuite was a contender. I liked Ventura Publisher. WordPerfect had some advantages. I liked PageMaker. They made far less money because of the widespread piracy of Microsoft Office. Eventually the quirky, closed Office file format became the business standard.
"Most - if not all - of Microsoft's supposed "abuses" are commonplace..."
They are not "supposed" abuses. They are abuses. It doesn't matter how commonplace they are. They are abuses.
The torrrent referenced in the parent has a current set of the utilities. The last-changed dates are this month, at least on important ones such as Process Monitor and regmon. Also a new EULA.txt in each file as another poster mentioned.
There is a new torrent now, pre-MS versions. http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3504886 See notes therein.
perhaps many of those great tools will soon be officially bundled by default as part of sys admin tools in windows...
At the bottom of the EULA included with Process Explorer, that I just downloaded:
OTHER INFORMATION.
Sysinternals is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Microsoft Corporation.
Nice.
The first time I tried opening a large .doc file in Open Office, it crashed. Now I wouldn't expect a non-MS word processor to open a Word document: unless it course, it claimed to be compatible. The best thing that could happen to OO is to be honest about it's limited compatability with MS Office.
"How the fuck can two people doing third party apps be *better* than the people that design the frigging OS?"
What do you mean? Half the Slashdotters believe that they could do a better job improving Windows than the people who designed it and most of them haven't written any Windows apps. The difference is that in the case of these two guys, it might actually be true.
I'll give it a month before it refreshes to microsoft.com...
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Well, this is scary, especially since I just renewed my maintanence. My real concern is about the USB dongle that protects the Winternals programs. I know they are fairly durable, but they are hardware and hardware always breaks at some point. If I can't get a replacement dongle from Microsoft, then my expensive tools become expensive coasters. But there is even something more interesting to consider. (Hey Pamala at Groklaw, are you listening?) I remember reading some time back that Copyright Office has issued exceptions to the DCMA for software protected by dongles where the company is either no longer in business or no longer making dongles. If Microsoft kills off the Winternals tools and stops selling replacement dongles, efforts by them to prevent users from haking the program to eliminate the dongle could be illegal. (Standard IANL disclaimer applies.) Thoughts?
With that out of the way. Let's move on. The reason for this aquisition is pretty simple. Business. Good business. Whatever their TRUE reasons, I suspect it has something to do with A. Licensing. (I'm sure someone here thinks that perhaps a few MS employees utilize some of this software?). B. It's better for them to be working WITH MS, and improving Windows, than potentially for a competitor.
I don't think these tools are going away. More likely, they (in one form or another) will eventually be incorporated in various "Resource Kits" which are already PUBLICLY available for download (anyone here ever use robocopy? I do, and love it, fantastic command line copy utility). Why? Because it's GOOD BUSINESS. MS may be many things, but it is, first and foremost, a BUSINESS. Bent on world domination maybe, but a business nonetheless... I for one welcome our new Microsoft/WinInternals Overlords.
*Anti-FLame shield UP!*
It's just as well that it's Microsoft who acquired them, because this month's Internet bandwidth bill is going to be monstrous now that half of Slashdot has decided to download every one of the free utilities from the website. :)
You want to also use the -u switch to specify a different account if you want to keep your username out of the system logs on the cube mates computer.
The can't find the manuals!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
You do know that most Sysinternals tools use APIs that are not part of the Win32 spec but are the native Windows NT APIs? And that most tools install drivers on the fly while running to get more intrinsic information out? That's what makes them so good.
I guess that Wine is simply made compatible enough to support productivity apps and games.
"The first time I tried opening a large .doc file in Open Office, it crashed."
.DOC files since version 2.
I've had that problem, too. But the latest version of Open Office seems very much improved. My experience has been that OO has done quite well with
The whole point of the very quirky Microsoft Office file format, it seems, is to be as incompatible and incomprehensible as possible. So, it is understandable that OO would have difficulty.
The Microsoft Office file format is part of Microsoft's unearned monopoly, an effective monopoly attained by trickery rather than caring for the customer and the people of the world. If Bill Gates truly cared about other people, he would have made good software products.
I was not claiming that OpenBSD is the equivalent of Microsoft Windows XP. I was only claiming that it is easily possible to create extremely complicated software that has very, very, very few vulnerabilities. That, to me, indicates that Microsoft doesn't want few vulnerabilities.
Already Microsoft Vista is being sold as the secure Windows, and Microsoft Windows OneCare is a profit center for Microsoft to protect you from problems Microsoft made. See the article, A Microsoft Safety Package. Grit Your Teeth.
"The whole point of the very quirky Microsoft Office file format, it seems, is to be as incompatible and incomprehensible as possible. So, it is understandable that OO would have difficulty"
Quirky or not, the point is that you shouldn't claim compatability if you don't have it.
"The Microsoft Office file format is part of Microsoft's unearned monopoly, an effective monopoly attained by trickery rather than caring for the customer and the people of the world."
MS office has nothing to do with the Windows "monopoly" unearned or otherwise. The problem is that sometimes believing in all the Anti-MS rhetoric may actually make you less able to compete with them. For example, the concern for compatiblity with Office to a great extent is based on the theory that people want to use Office only because they're supposedly "locked-in". The fact is that many people like Office and have a lot of time invested in learning it.
So if you truly want to compete with Office, you have to give a better reason than (sort of) file compatiblity.
"... singling out Microsoft when every other company does the same thing, is blatant hypocrisy."
I am CERTAINLY not saying only Microsoft is abusive. The U.S. government has invaded 24 countries since the 2nd world war, and killed people and destroyed their property in each of them.
Consider also the Enron fraud, the WorldCom fraud, and the Tyco fraud.
Now we will soon be able to download service packs of all sysinternal utilities.
Congratulations, Congratulations, Congratulations. Its not that readers don't know any other compliments, its that "Congratulations" is such an hypocritical praise. It is said with the mouth half closed when the truth is not appropriate and the Future is uncertain.
Well we are all crying out here. And not the kind of cry when we where born, when we took our first breath, and are all anticipating the life we will have. But the kind of weep we have when our father dies, and all thats left behind is his legacy and our, now painful, memory. So you weep and slowly you realize that Life will (have to) go on without the help and guide of the one person in the world that only wants our well been, even over his own. The one that catches us when we fall, the one that saves us when Sony turns Big-Brother. Fer well our fathers, have a good time in moneys heaven. It will happen to us but not yet.
Father, you went to the sky, flying among the clouds, riding on a Dragon, traveling the endless road which is You and me and my child
So you're complaining that Microsoft, who now own Winternals and therefore have the right to release it with any terms they chose (remember, you can also chose not to use it) are releasing it under terms that *you* are unhappy with? Get a grip. What reason does Microsoft (a commercial entity, who make money by selling Windows) have to make *their* software compatible with WINE, ReactOS, or any other Windows emulator?
How exactly does rarring the files result in less seeds...?
I have no sig yet I must scream.
You will need a Windows system to actually use those tools, so Windows Genuine Advantage will be a wall for only those who are not using a legitimate copy of Windows. I guess that is a reasonable limitation for them to make.
(This sig intentionally left blank)
The kernel of ReactOS is a clone of the NT kernel and can run drivers. My point is that checks for whether your OS is a lawfully made copy are neutral to good, but checks for whether it was published by Microsoft are bad. Remember Windows 3 betas and the AARD code to lock out DR-DOS?
"The fact is that many people like Office and have a lot of time invested in learning it."
Yes, they have invested a lot of time learning it. I don't know people who "like" Microsoft Office. Some users can be given OpenOffice and not notice a difference. Others, very understandably, have learned to use Microsoft Office and don't want to invest time learning something new.
Only those who know two or more ways of capturing and formatting keystrokes and printing them can choose one or the other as something they "like".
My guess is that people who had invested an equal amount of time in Open Office would prefer that, and wouldn't want to change.
No. Better is not using a closed format that is the hands of one single proprietary vendor. This has nothing to do with philosophy, or not being allowed to make money, or anything. It has everything to do with being practical, being able to use the files in years to come, choosing the tools you want, and not fucking doing torrents the wrong fucking way. Oh, and not having to do third party installs on every single computer just for some COMPRESSION.
RAR had a place once, before torrents and tiger tree hashes, now it is just Cargo Cult (look it up if you need to).
Clearer?
Pretty sure it does, yes. Cargo Cult means the practice of repeating something done before without any understanding of why, in a way that doesn't work or at least is contra-productive. RAR once had a place before torrents and tiger tree hashes, because it could split files, thus helping with corrupt parts. Now torrents and TTH handle the splitting themselves, better than split files ever could, and torrents at least support downloading only certain files out from a torrent - if they are not packed together in an archive. Compression is often neglible and with bandwidths these days rarely an issue (1MB diff on 100 isn't gonna matter much even on 56k for that matter). Most people who download a RAR stop seeding it because they've unpacked it and see no reason to keep the stupid archive (often quoted problem with seeders at say TPB, unRARed gets lots more seeders always).
Still, millions of people still use RAR and the reasons they quote, if they have any at all, are the old ones that are invalid. Mostly it's just done because they've learned that this is the way you do it. Much like tribal people once learned that if you have an airplane, you get cargo - so they built more.
It's just so bloody depressingly stupid.
So you're saying that the Sysinternals tools are explicitly checking whether the OS it runs on is really Windows? Maybe they're doing you a favour in case your OS is not 100% compatible. Maybe they choose to make tools that run only on Windows, and support it only on Windows.
Why should low level debugging tools be made cross-platform?
Dave
GNU for win32, binaries and all
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm
This seems kind of strange. These tools access the "internals" of Windows and were written without access to the Windows source code. Couldn't Microsoft, having possession of their own source code, done better? What am I missing here? If I got this right, then this is just plain sad, that this big, bloated company would actually need to make this purchase just to acquire software and knowledtge. But then again, maybe there were other reasons for the purchase.
I'm just hoping that this obviously bright and hardworking fella didn't make a deal that he can't wiggle out of.
If you are bright enough then you can make a deal with them that you no longer need to be a hardworking fella.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
I have used this NT password blanker floppy, & it works like an ace. The main drawback is it can't change the syskey-style password, you either have to (a) disable syskey and live with insecurely short LANMAN style passwords until the next OS reinstall, or (b) get a one-time shot at logging in as admin and then change your passwords again in the control panel.
Worse yet, my wife bought a dress and didn't find the inktag on it until a few weeks later. Where did we buy it? Where's the reciept? Fortuneately the tags are fairly easy to defeat...the flat end has an ink vial but the pointy half has a spring clutch. The store removes the tag by magnetically pulling the mechanism down against the spring force. To defeat it, hacksaw off the pointy tip and the spring will pop out, releasing the clutch.
Sysinternals utilities all in one pack (7.19.06) in 7z format. ;)s _all_in_one.7z.html
http://s21.quicksharing.com/v/8558154/Sysinternal
Not necessarily, but the Windows Genuine Advantage checks in future versions might.
What if I want to try to make my OS closer to 100% compatible?
If future versions of the Sysinternals tools add this check, this could look like predatory behavior if Microsoft flexes revenue from its Windows monopoly to acquire developers of debugging tools for NT-compatible operating systems and force the tools to work only in its own operating system.
Because they allow developers and users to determine the deficiencies in the competing platform.
Apparently someone works for Microsoft.