Microsoft Forces Shutdown of Autopatcher

One down, X to go. by c0l0 · 2007-08-29 08:22 · Score: 5, Informative

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.

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:%s/Open Source/Free Software/g

YTARY!

Morons. by adam.dorsey · 2007-08-29 08:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

Do they even understand the concept of bad publicity any more, or did they just stop caring?

Fuckers hit close to home, this time; Autopatcher was great for keeping relatives on dialup up-to-date.

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You are still innocent until proven guilty. What's changed is what they do to innocent people. - notnAP, #26891325

Re:Morons. by tftp · 2007-08-29 08:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

They just stopped caring. And why not indeed - what is there to be afraid in squashing a little web site? The society is already in deep apathy (if not slumber,) and critical thought is about to send you to jail. Bloggers on /. will rage and fume for a few days, but nobody will notice that anyhow, and all that rage will dissipate in a week, but the good business remains.
MS is cynical and ruthless because it can and because it is profitable; and so it will stay. If you don't like that don't run Windows, it is that simple. With modern Linux distros it's not such a great loss. And if you don't want to fiddle with X settings, get a mac - Apple will charge you for that, but you get a sane system in return, not a buggy treadmill. [full disclosure: I do not own a modern Mac; all I have is an ancient PowerBook with 8.5.x MacOS, and I rarely even power it on, I keep it as a piece of history.]
Re:Morons. by William-Ely · 2007-08-29 09:34 · Score: 4, Informative

I used it a lot as a PC tech. Microsoft might not realize that some people use dial-up still and downloading large updates isn't really practical. With Autopatcher all I had to do was pop in a CD or a thumb drive and get down to business patching up Windows. At least then I could be sure that when I left my clients computer fully patched up no matter what their connection was like. Way to go MS.
/em Pours out a '40 for the departed Autopatcher ; ;

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Mod me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!

WindizUpdate next? by Aggrajag · 2007-08-29 08:25 · Score: 4, Interesting

So are they going to shut down WindizUpdate next as it is a lot more useful that Windowsupdate has ever been. Then again maybe the patches are downloaded from Microsoft's servers but I'm not sure.

Are they making the arguement that..... by 8127972 · 2007-08-29 08:29 · Score: 5, Informative

... 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/

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This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.

Re:Are they making the arguement that..... by hal2814 · 2007-08-29 09:01 · Score: 4, Funny

So Kaladis talked to Microsoft's best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend who heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who works somewhere in a Microsoft call center who saw Autopatcher in use at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty ironclad. It's my understanding that they can pursue legal action against Autopatcher at their leisure even if the Microsoft employee in question was accurately reflecting Microsoft-as-a-whole's knowledge of Autopatcher.

Are the patch installers still available? by LordSnooty · 2007-08-29 08:32 · Score: 4, Interesting

Autopatcher was really just a front end to all the official MS one-off hotfix exes. If those files are still available, why not adapt the frontend to grab those files from MS instead? Hell, the least MS could do is take on the tech and offer it to their customers with a free WGA check thrown in. Because it was so much easier even for home users with say two machines to update at home, plus mum & dad's, and that one they built for their pal.

Torrents for August release plz?

Torrent links here for August ... by trolltalk.com · 2007-08-29 08:34 · Score: 5, Informative

http://autopatcher.m2ys4u.co.uk/mystats.php

Found via google cache :-)

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Kevin Smith on Prince

I noted this on Neowin... by 8127972 · 2007-08-29 08:35 · Score: 5, Insightful

"I asked the representative if Windows Genuine Advantage had anything to do with it and he categorically told me this was not the case, he added that Windows Update for pre-Vista versions of Windows can now be accessed using Firefox and that the concern at Microsoft had more to do with the possible malicious code that could be redistributed with certified Microsoft updates."

Sure. Whatever. We all know that there's never been a case of malicious code distributed with Autopatcher. So I'm calling it now. Watch M$ come up with their own tool that does the same thing as Autopatcher and watch them find a way to turn it into a revenue stream.

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This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.

It was good, but by Toreo+asesino · 2007-08-29 08:35 · Score: 4, Informative

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.

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throw new NoSignatureException();

But you don't understand what it was good for by spun · 2007-08-29 08:56 · Score: 4, Insightful

Patches can be slipstreamed anyway, and for the mother of all 'off-line patching systems' there's Windows Server Update Services. Slipstreaming? WSUS? Those are useful in entirely different situations. Autopatcher is for when you are visiting your aunt Tilly and don't want to spend four hours downloading all the latest patches for her over her dialup. Please explain how either of your proposed solutions would be even remotely useful in the very common situation of patching a relative's computer.

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- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton

Shenanigans by krgallagher · 2007-08-29 09:00 · Score: 4, Insightful

"Microsoft legal says that it has nothing to do with Windows Genuine Advantage. "

I call Shenanigans!

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Insert Generic Sig Here:

Should have bought and funded it instead by EmbeddedJanitor · 2007-08-29 09:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

Instead of shutting it down, Microsoft should have bought Autopatcher and funded it.

This service added a lot of value to MS customers. Tearing it down because they were better than their equivalent is destructive.

Doing things that make your products harder to use is bad business sense. It really shows how badly out of touch MS is with the industry.

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Engineering is the art of compromise.

Re:Should have bought and funded it instead by binarybum · 2007-08-29 09:48 · Score: 5, Insightful

"Doing things that make your products harder to use is bad business sense. It really shows how badly out of touch MS is with the industry."

Nah, it shows what a powerful monopoly they have developed. They can make using their products downright miserable (they practically have already) and people will continue to curse that evil ol' bill gates as they IM each-other on MS messenger in MS vista on their laptops with the "built for windows!" sticker still attached. Plenty of other companies would like to implement the kind of security lockdowns MS has, and are capable of doing so. However, market pressures force them to realize that excessive measures create a barrier to use and sway customers towards friendlier products. Microsoft is not out of touch with the industry. Microsoft is the industry.

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ôó

Still many useful tools by ThanatosMinor · 2007-08-29 09:10 · Score: 4, Informative

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

Microsoft is immune to bad press by rbanzai · 2007-08-29 09:17 · Score: 4, Interesting

Microsoft is so large and its userbase so enormous that no amount of bad press can affect them. Anything short of eating live babies would not impact them in the slightest.

Shutting down Autopatcher is nothing to them and will not affect their business in even a negligible fashion.

I would like to think otherwise but I can't. They are unstoppable.

What about the DVD ISO on MS's download page? by Arctech · 2007-08-29 09:26 · Score: 5, Informative

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

Re:How 'bout getting that in writing next time? by quantum+bit · 2007-08-29 09:32 · Score: 4, Interesting

I have noticed at least one hotfix that's not normally publicly available, but was included with autopatcher. You know, the ones where you go to the KB article and it describes the exact symptoms you're seeing, and when you scroll down to download the patch it says something like:

"We don't think this is a major problem, and people who are having it are obviously too dumb to realize that it's somehow their own fault. Therefore, in order to get this patch, you'll have to call our support line where we will bill you outrageous fees in order to tell you whether you really need the patch or not."

Fortunately, the one I was looking for just happened to be included with autopatcher somehow, so I extracted the file and sure enough it fixed the problem.

Re:Understatement of the Month. by tftp · 2007-08-29 09:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

Well, you do lose PC games, since rare a game works under WINE. But I personally fixed this issue by just getting a console, and I am not sorry that I did - the thing just works, and I don't need to throw kilobucks at video cards. And in any case, games are first released for consoles, and only much later - maybe - rereleased for a PC.

Terrific. How long before they break even that? by Erris · 2007-08-29 09:45 · Score: 5, Interesting

offline update is terrific; its basically a script that wgets the patches directly from Microsoft,

The geinous of M$ can not be understated. Rather than let people share the burden of distributing their "patches" (efficiently)they will make everyone go to them. We have just seen how well they do at an easier task.

It won't be long before they only allow "authenticated" clients to download.

The contrast between this and the free software world could not be greater. Every gnu/linux distro has been easy to keep up today for the last ten years and there are verified mirrors everywhere. When you download a package from a mirror, you can md5 sum check it against the original source and most package managers do this automatically. M$ on the other hand, won't even let you distribute what they consider "free". Be wary when someone from M$ advocates BSD, love of your freedom is not the reason for their advice.

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DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.

What's the deal with Neowin? by belmolis · 2007-08-29 10:13 · Score: 4, Insightful

Microsoft is within its rights, though obnoxious, with regard to Autopatcher, but since when is it their business what Neowin says about Autopatcher? Where does MS get off telling Neowin to take down their forums? Is MS just being a bully or is there some relationship between MS and Neowin that I don't know about?

Just grab the script from MS that does it for you. by JediJorgie · 2007-08-29 14:23 · Score: 4, Informative

MSDN's Version:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-US/library/aa387102. aspx

My modified version that forces cscript.exe and adds an /auto switch:
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

For many, this makes Windows XP more expensive. by Futurepower(R) · 2007-08-29 14:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

The purpose of Autopatcher was to reduce the VERY high maintenance costs of Windows XP. Windows often becomes corrupted and must be reloaded to clear away system files that have been infected with viruses and other malware.

Notice that Microsoft has not released a Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, even though it has been years since SP2 was released. The purpose of the delay is apparently to make Windows XP more expensive, in the hope that people will begin to adopt Windows Vista.

The Windows XP updates of just last Patch Tuesday were more than 20 Megabytes.

Windows Vista is not an option for many, since because of the hassles with Windows XP, many companies have a rule never to use a Windows version before the 2nd service pack is released, and the bugs in Windows Vista are reinforcing that rule.

Also, Windows Vista requires far more resources. Each new Windows version requires more resources, apparently to try to manipulate customers to buy new computers. That serves Microsoft's biggest customers, the computer builders.

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