Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Forces Shutdown of Autopatcher
kaufmanmoore writes "Posts on Neowin and Autopatcher's site announce Microsoft has forced the closure of the Autopatcher download section. Details are scarce as to the exact reason for the take down after over 4 years of availability, but an official from Microsoft legal says that it has nothing to do with Windows Genuine Advantage. Goodbye to another useful tool that helped sysadmins apply Microsoft's numerous patches."
Whilst skimming over the About-Section of the page, this tool's description reminded me of heise's "offline update" ( http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682 ). It's an alternative tool, allowing the download of selected Microsoft Windows update packs for later, offline (re-)use. Nice to have - if you're still on Windows, that is. Wonder if/when it's gonna be shot down as well.
:%s/Open Source/Free Software/g
YTARY!
... this is some sort of DMCA violation? That's bizarre because Microsoft has known about them for some time and according to their site, they didn't care:
"Q: Is AutoPatcher legal?
A: Yes, Antonis Kaladis (our project manager) once spoke to a Microsoft employee and apparently they know about us but don't care what we do! The AutoPatcher project has been going strong since 2003 and never had a sniff of trouble from Microsoft."
From http://www.autopatcher.com/faq/
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/mystats.php
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatch er_DirectX_Aug07_x86_ENU_Addon.exe.torrent
h er_Extras_Jul07_x86_ENU_Addon.exe.torrent\
h er_Office02_Aug07_ENU_Core.exe.torrent
h er_Office03_Aug07_ENU_Core.exe.torrent
h er_Office07_Aug07_ENU_Core.exe.torrent
h er_OfficePack_Aug07_ENU_Addon.exe.torrent
h er_Win2K3_Aug07_x86_ENU_Core.exe.torrent
h er_Win2K_Aug07_ENU_Core.exe.torrent
h er_WinVista_Jul07_Core.exe.torrent
h er_WinX64_Jul07_x64_ENU_Core.exe.torrent
h er_WinXP_Aug07_x86_ENU_Core.exe.torrent
h er_WinXP_MCE2005_May07_x86_ENU_Addon.exe.torrent
h er_WinXP_WMP10_May07_x86_ENU_Addon.exe.torrent
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/torrents/AutoPatc
Found via google cache :-)
Kevin Smith on Prince
Patches can be slipstreamed anyway, and for the mother of all 'off-line patching systems' there's Windows Server Update Services.
That said, the overall rhetoric of this move still isn't nice. AutoPatcher was at the very least, a handy tool for people that didn't know about the above methods, and to leave it 4 years in the game before sending in the lawyers isn't a nice way of treating the user community. A shame if you ask me.
throw new NoSignatureException();
http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/mystats.php
You can find windows updates thru http://windizupdate.62nds.com/
I hardly use IE, and this updates through Firefox.
Which is of course very neat. *cough*firefox fan*cough*
I have found that a combination of Heise Security's ctupdate and nLite can be used to create a very nice custom Windows installation CD that not only includes any updates you choose to include, but you can also specify a large number of custom registry settings that will be set when you install.
Is very nice
I haven't heard of this before, (just found it, actually), but would this be a reasonable facsimile?
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=913086&SD=tech
/em Pours out a '40 for the departed Autopatcher ; ;
Mod me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
MSDN's Version:. aspx
/auto switch:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-US/library/aa387102
My modified version that forces cscript.exe and adds an
http://b0n.us/WUA_SearchDownloadInstall.vbs
It usually takes 3 times with reboots in between to get all the patches.
It will use your WSUS settings and get the patches from a local server if you have one.
Yes, they are VBS, don't run them without reading them and understanding them!
jorgie
You don't even need to call anymore, just go to this form and you can get the non regression tested hotfixes by email! Include platform because they will want it even if there is only one applicable fix in the KB article.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
They can make using their products downright miserable
/lp1. On another page, you change from raw to LPT and put in the port name of lp1. Simple but not intuitive. To make matters even easier, noplace in Vista does it refer to it as Internet Printing Protocol. They just call it Network Printing. Very intuitive and user friendly.
Tell me about it.
My wife bought a new Vista laptop for her Masters classes. A simple request was to transfer some files and documents to and from our network SMB fileserver (A stand alone product).
They changed the default authentication protocol. It can't log in to any server using a password unless you either upgrade the server or downgrade Vists (not recommended by Microsoft) The server is an embedded Linux appliance (SimpleTech SimpleShare NAS).
The next simple task was to connect to my LAN printers. They hang on the LAN using the well established IPP interface with an address of IPP://192.168.1.101/lp1 and IPP://192.168.1.102/lp1. It took 4 hours and lots of Google searches to find out how to enter a non-IIS printserver address into Vista.
To make it easy, you leave off the IPP:// and put in the IP address and leave off the
Ubunto was much simpler to connect to these Windows printers. (an HP laserjet and HP inkjet) on garden variety stand alone hardware Print servers using IPP. (Hawking Technology Print servers)
Why would Microsoft make it much harder on Vista Home to connect to a home network and printers? It makes no sense to me.
It's almost like they designed it to be easier to use Ubuntu at home. It is much easier to use Ubuntu at home than Vista. Vista kept interrupting for a Java Update, Sound system Update, AV update and reregistration, and a few other things got in the way of setting up LAN settings and configuring 2 printers. Ubuntu was much better in that also. A single small notification popped up letting me know there were updates available. The small notification did not cover my applications in Ubuntu or force a reboot to close the notification.
The truth shall set you free!