AutoPatcher no longer allowed

[Shof]

does anyone think that microsoft is trying to take over the world?

[windowsedge]

It is weird they haven't contacted mirrors providing autopatcher.... Hmmm... What's going on here??

Edited September 1, 2007 by windowsedge

[smctainsh]

I think this is quite a sad decision. After seeing how helpful Autopatcher has been to people, it really seems like a really sad decision for Microsoft to make. I also find it strange that it took them this long to act (four years). :huh:

it's not much but here is my support... unless someone else can make a better "SUPPORT AUTO PATCHER"

You inspired me to create a badge that people can use to show their support for Autopatcher if they wish. :) You can download the badge from here.

Smctainsh

[guenther]

It's fairly ironic how shutting stuff down gives it more attention. I didn't know of autopatcher before now... but I'm downloading it as we speak. Screw ms.

Hi,

I had just finished downloading the august core half an hour before the shutdown. I did not have the time to download AP 5.6. Any ideas where I can still get it. What are the problems if I install the August core with 5.1

[PsiMoon314]

Hi,

Please think before posting the locations of the AP downloads.

Even though many of the mirrors are still up and download have not stopped posting the download locations here might upset Neowin Staff and MS even further.

I feel confident that a fairly straight-forward search using your favorite search engine will locate downloads for the current releases of AP.

Kind Regards

Simon

[icemanx]

All I can say is when MS gets its deals done autopatcher will go underground and then no one can stop it

if they had have left it alone then it wouldnt go underground at all

lets all sign in to the MS site at once and really clog up thier system so much they will have to rething thier ideas very fast

I love it when companies cut off their noses despite thier face

underground here we all go.......

[d0bby]

I don't know if this has already been mentioned but it might have something to do with the recent release of Windows Update Catalog. You can download any updates for any Windows OS. You could also use vLite to slipstream them so you don't have to update after each install. WUC is still on initial release and unfortunately uses ActiveX (Yuck!) and has a crap search function but at least you can download the updates.

I only just found out about Autopatcher so I'm a bit gutted that it's now been taken down. Thanks for the efforts guys.

[Japlabot]

Is it possible to have a BartPE style "Builder" which will download the required components from the Microsoft servers before being packaged.

At a minimum, would it be possible to maintain the master patch list so that we can update ourselves?

I seriously thaught that Microsoft would have better things to do than go after community projects. Obviously not.

Even if the potential for compromised updates to be included is possible, it is not, and never would have been the responsibility of Microsoft that it happened.

[Shof]

For those reading the ap forums, remember there was a topic about a user trying to talk to microsoft about getting legal permission from them about the autopatcher project? Well i bet that user tip off microsoft the wrong way which made them in turn send a c&d to autopatcher

[gunslinger]

The problem with microsoft is that at this point they feel invincible like nothing can touch them, and sadly they are right. Every tech on here could install Linux on every PC they see for the rest of there life and it wont effect business at microsoft one bit. This also explains why they charge the way they do for software. If 98% of people use your product you can charge whatever you want. Same for gas prices, its something everyone uses. If the price of gas went to $10 a gallon tomorrow everyone would have to pay it or not drive, simple as that.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

For those reading the ap forums, remember there was a topic about a user trying to talk to microsoft about getting legal permission from them about the autopatcher project? Well i bet that user tip off microsoft the wrong way which made them in turn send a c&d to autopatcher

I was thinking the same thing but didn't want to assign blame.

It's perfectly possible, however, that MS have done this of their own accord.

[*John*]

Why don't the people involved in the Autopatcher project get a free forum from proboards/informe/freeforums.org/forumer etc and continue the autopatcher project on their own?

Neowin isn't essential for this project?

[DaveLegg Developer]

Why don't the people involved in the Autopatcher project get a free forum from proboards/informe/freeforums.org/forumer etc and continue the autopatcher project on their own?

Neowin isn't essential for this project?

Because Microsoft also sent them emails asking them to stop. It's not just Neowin that got emails like that.

[DS2K]

What a bunch of ass holes.

Personal think there should just kill the Vista version of autopatch

As that seem to be the only one M$ cares about.

**** M$

**** Vista.

Edited September 2, 2007 by Frank

[*John*]

Because Microsoft also sent them emails asking them to stop. It's not just Neowin that got emails like that.

Ah ok (Y)

That sucks :(

[Shof]

John, if you can read their blog comments he posted this message:

# Antonis Kaladis Says:

August 30th, 2007 at 10:12 am

You can email me at nw_raptor#gmail_com (replace _ with . and # with @).

An update for all of you:

We have already come up with a set of changes/features in order to continue the project without redistributing Microsoft?s patches. We are still waiting however from an in-depth reply from Microsoft. In any case, we will be implementing these changes as soon as possible.

..this was also posted a few pages back

[tao muon]

.

You go ahead and doubleclick every patch that you downloaded from UC to start them one after the other.

I prefer the Autopatcher way; select (f.e. only the critical patches) and launch the install process.

It 's unattended !

Wait a minimum of time and 'voil?', a fully patched system.

I don't want to sit through the series of downloads every day !

.

Well, if you'd have downloaded them from UC and burned them to disc or saved them on USB flash like I said earlier, you wouldn't be setting "... through a series of downloads every day !"... as you put it. You'd just have to run them one-by-one, choose the critical versus optional or recommended patches... which was my point- Autopatcher is a one-click solution, little more.

However, a professional sys-admin should be able to write a shell script to do the same thing with WSH or PowerShell and WMI calls, agreed? There might even be a script out there that does this- run the script and point it at your UC files and "viola".

I am now currently using Autopatcher XP for the 5th time this week.

I charge my clients a fixed rate for reinstalls + security updates. Without AP I will have to charge more.

Also I routinely hand out AP CD's to people with dialup connections.>

Downloading over 100 updates via dialup isn't fun. Many skip the larger updates.

>snippage<

You could charge more, and be justified in doing so, were Autopatcher not available. So I assume you are not greedy. And, when you hand out AP CD's, do you charge for the disc?

[tao muon]

I think the Autopatcher team could get around the technicalities of the Terms of Service by providing software one would download which would connect the user to the Update Catalog and allow the user to select which updates to download. These updates would then be downloaded to the user's computer and the Autopatcher program could then use a scripted method to invoke the udpate package(s) without altering the package itself... basically a shell that intercepts 'package does not apply to this system' messages.

AP would be a third party utility that does not infringe on Microsoft's way of installing patches: people download patches themselves from Microsoft for installation on their computer(s).

AP would, in essence, become Windows Update for all versions of Windows.

But I'm drinking so what am I thinking? :D

[Night.Hawk]

I think the Autopatcher team could get around the technicalities of the Terms of Service by providing software one would download which would connect the user to the Update Catalog and allow the user to select which updates to download.

<snip>

One of the most useful features of AutoPatcher though was that you could download all the updates in a small, compressed format. Especially on reinstalls, downloading AutoPatcher was sometimes smaller than downloading individual updates. It was also nice that you could burn it to a CD and take it to people with slower internet connections.

[Frank]

One of the most useful features of AutoPatcher though was that you could download all the updates in a small, compressed format. Especially on reinstalls, downloading AutoPatcher was sometimes smaller than downloading individual updates. It was also nice that you could burn it to a CD and take it to people with slower internet connections.

Yes but after the updates were downloaded from Microsoft I am sure you would be able to burn the AP package to the CD and take it with you. ;)

[Codesmith]

It takes 4 or 5 clicks and 15 seconds to fix it so a pirated copy of XP is activated and validates both online and off.

Autopatcher doesn't help pirates, because they don't need any help.

Microsoft killed it because eventually someone was going to hack into one of those mirrors and sneak something nasty into one of the releases.

Microsoft should have just offered to host all the autopatcher downloads.

Microsoft would then be the hero while making sure that all patches are downloaded directly from their servers.

[akaladis Veteran]

Microsoft killed it because eventually someone was going to hack into one of those mirrors and sneak something nasty into one of the releases.

You make it sound easy. Rest assured, AutoPatcher has its fair share of security features for such a case. If you change anything the release is flagged as unofficial, and users are alerted appropriately.

Microsoft should have just offered to host all the autopatcher downloads.

So they can be secure?

[Toxikk Veteran]

dagger!!! that sucks. oh well. gotta give into the man if you gotta!

[gandolas]

Thank you guys for the support. And a special thanks to our torrent guy, M2Ys4U. :)

And guys, we won't give up. We may be back sooner that you think. ;)

[~Simon]

Thanks for a great program. I hope Microsoft actually thinks about what they're doing and lets AutoPatcher come back.