Microsoft buys Winternals!

[Copernic Reporter]

Microsoft buys Windows utility software maker

By Ina Fried

Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: July 18, 2006, 7:53 AM PDT

Last modified: July 18, 2006, 8:35 AM PDT

Microsoft on Tuesday said it has bought Winternals Software, a small maker of Windows utility programs, in a deal that the software maker hopes will add key technical talent to its operating system development team.

Terms of the deal to acquire the Austin, Texas-based company were not announced. Among the software that Winternals offers is a set of freely downloadable tools known as Sysinternals.

As part of the deal, the software maker is naming Winternals co-founder Mark Russinovich as a technical fellow.

"I've had my eye on Mark for some time," Jim Allchin, Microsoft divisional co-president, said in a statement. "The work he and Bryce (Cogswell, Winternal's other co-founder) have completed in system recovery and data protection illustrates the depth of thinking and skill they will bring to future versions of Windows. The addition of their deep kernel-level expertise to our existing strong talent will help provide us with the edge we need to continue to raise the quality and functionality bar for Windows on both the client and the server."

In buying Winternals, Microsoft is getting the company's free tools, its Sysinternals community Web site as well as several paid-for software products for businesses. However, it appears Microsoft made the deal, in large part, to hire the company's two co-founders.

"It's definitely about talent," Platform and Services division architect Jason Garms said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "Mark is one of the top five or 10 people in the world when it comes to Windows internals."

Garms said that Russinovich will be focused on helping Microsoft further develop the Windows kernel in his role as technical fellow--the top technical position at Microsoft with less than two dozen people holding such title. Co-founder Cogswell will become a software architect in the Windows Component Platform Team.

Microsoft has seen its ability to quickly ready new versions of its flagship operating system wane in recent years. Windows Vista, the successor to Windows XP, will come more than five years after its predecessor, which launched in October 2001. Following several delays, Microsoft is currently hoping to wrap up development work on Vista this year in time for a January launch.

Russinovich said in a statement that he is excited to join the company whose technologies are so critical to so many businesses.

"I witness regularly the profound impact that even a few lines of code can have in a world of globally connected systems," Russinovich said.

Microsoft said it is still exploring how best to integrate Winternals' products. Winternals' Recovery Manager, for example, has some similarities to the System Center Data Protection Manager tool that Microsoft released in September 2005. "We're evaluating how those would meet together," Garms said.

As for the Sysinternals blog, the company wants to keep the community information, blogs, forums and tools, but Garms said Microsoft is looking at how the site might be integrated into other Microsoft efforts "so that it's not quite so separate."

http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-6095376.ht...6&subj=news

http://www.winternals.com/

http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/

[Smigit]

it appears Microsoft made the deal, in large part, to hire the company's two co-founders.

Sounds like an interesting way to hire two employees. Just buy their entire company

[vip]

Sounds like an interesting way to hire two employees. Just buy their entire company

I thought that was funny as well :p

[Daybreak]

Hopefully there'll be no change to the free tools Sysinternals are offering now... Don't think I'd really like it if WGA validation was sudddenly tacked on to the download process.

[ana04]

Well Mark really seems to know a lot about windows so I guess they wanted him badly.. :yes:

And I love their little free programs.. :)

[Cole]

Why would they buy the company to get two employees. O_o

[Joe User 99]

From the FAQ on the Winternals Site:

Q. Will you continue selling Winternals' portfolio of products?

A. Microsoft will meet all customer and partner commitments through their terms. At the same time we are looking to integrate the technologies and talent into Microsoft. Microsoft is currently finalizing plans on how these products and technologies can be best integrated with existing Microsoft technologies to maximize future customer value.

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.

Kinda makes you wonder what exactly they will "integrate" them into. Obviously they are not going to continue the products as is.

[RootWind]

Hopefully there'll be no change to the free tools Sysinternals are offering now... Don't think I'd really like it if WGA validation was sudddenly tacked on to the download process.

Or better yet, they make Winternals programs free. Such as the Administrator's Pak...

[Slimy]

Now integrate them all into vista for free and I'll be happy (just like with windows defender) :)

[IceDogg]

wow, this is very interesting. Hope it means better security for Windows.

[Express]

Wes Miller left Microsoft to join Wininternals.

Now he is back with Microsoft.

Thats funny!

[t_r_nelson]

They pretty much had to buy the company. Do you think they would abandon their company to go work for Microsoft? Now, they get a boatload of cash and new positions that probably pay a boatload more and have stock options. Win-win situation for them.

The only losers in this situation is us if they kill the product line.

[Allan]

with how closely Winternals and Microsoft interact at Tech shows etc, it's not surprising (to me) to see t his.

[+Xinok Subscriber²]

I don't like this at all. I just hope Microsoft doesn't mess with some of their key utilities - Process Explorer, Autoruns, Rootkit Revealer, etc.

[dagamer34]

*prays they integrate some of their apps into Vista*

[trashpickinman]

I see bad and good things coming out of this. I think some programs will get better due to better code integration with Microsoft products. But I also see some of Winternals and Sysinternals programs disappearing due to the fact that some might be integrated into Windows and other products, and therefore not being freely available without buying a Microsoft product.

edit: Being slightly paranoid of Microsoft, I will backup as many of the Sysinternals programs as I can. Because one day they might not be there when I need them.

[yodat]

That's bad news for me as a person who enjoy their great freebies in Sysinternals.

There are no alternatives for some of their tools :(

"...As for Sysinternals, the site will remain for the time being while Microsoft determines the best way to integrate it into its own community efforts, and the tools will continue to be free to download."

MS probably divert their both of them into the new areas and these tools no more will be updated probably...

[mukati]

*prays they integrate some of their apps into Vista*

If that would happen, it would proabably be in a service pack. I dont see microsoft adding features in Vista so late in development

[Miuku.]

*takes hat off*

There goes another batch of good software into nothingness.

*dons hat*

[ThePitt]

Microsoft buys Winternals

:blink: :o :cry: :x :| :cry: :angry:

[BigBoy]

I dunno why people are getting bent out of shape and assume MS will kill all the tools. Let's take, for example, few last acquisitions that MS did like this:

- Virtual Server / Virtual PC - now both free... Virtual Server was improved quite bit in the process...

- Lookout - merged with MSN/Windows Desktop Search, which beat the pants of Lookout in functionality and flexibility. Oh yeah, it's free

- Giant Anti Spyware - Windows Defender brought Giant into 21st century as far as code base (it was a VB6 app I think!), it is much more robust... (albeit there are a few features missing from it compared to Gian times); Giant also had more bugs than swiss cheese holes and it was a retail released product too; ah yes, it's now again - free!!

So what is the whining all about again? :shiftyninja:

[strekship]

Now integrate them all into vista for free and I'll be happy (just like with windows defender) :)

I think if they did that the DoJ and the EU would be all over them for trying to take over the market.

[madnuke]

Noooo, all they will do is rebrand them with 'Microsoft' and put WGA into the installer....

[Xabora]

Crap!

The http://www.sysinternals.com/ site is down! :(

[andrewhaji]

The http://www.sysinternals.com/ site is down! :(

It's not down. It's just a little slow because of all the extra traffic it's getting today.

I think Microsoft would do good putting the features of Process Explorer into Task Manager and replacing their aging (and relatively useless) netstat program with TCPView.