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."

Re:Morons.

[jollyreaper]

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

Maybe they're following the Hollywood publicist school of publicity: anything that doesn't involve a dead spouse or sex with children is good publicity.

Coming tomorrow

[faloi]

Microsoft announces a new service available for $50 a seat (check with sales rep for volume licensing) that will allow administrators to do what used to be free from some web sites.

Missing the obvious

[Sefert]

You are all missing the obvious reason for the shutdown. Microsoft has finally fixed all the bugs! Celebrate!

Re:Are they making the arguement that.....

[hal2814]

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.

Re:I noted this on Neowin...

[iminplaya]

"I asked the representative if Windows Genuine Advantage had anything to do with it and he categorically told me this was not the case..."

"I am not gay; I never have been gay..."

Re:Should have bought and funded it instead

[TechForensics]

What on Earth could Microsoft be thinking making Windows XP harder to use? Would kind of tend to make Vista look good by comparison..

Oh wait....

Stop caring?

[mac1235]

I slept throught the bit where they used to care...

Re:WindizUpdate next?

[tholomyes]

Shhh, don't mention any alternatives here, you'll just give them ideas!

Re:Morons.

[ConceptJunkie]

Microsoft stopped caring over a decade ago. Do you think they have any interest in what users want or need? It's all about lock-in, baby.

They don't care what's on your hardware as long as it's theirs. Actually I wish that were true, because XP is pretty decent, but they couldn't leave well enough alone and had to spend 5 years squatting on the toilet to excrete Vista, the first piece of software that doesn't even pretend to offer anything new to the customers, it's only selling points are what's good for Microsoft and their big media buddies. OK, I lied. It does offer a new feature for users: It's shiny.

Re:Terrific. How long before they break even that?

[turbidostato]

"Most MS users are unsophisticated, which is one reason why MS products are so prone to bugs."

Uh!? Last I reviewed a reason for a software product to be prone to bugs were unsophisticated *developers* but... users?