AutoPatcher no longer allowed

[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.

[Popcorned1]

Instead of having the updates already packaged up and ready to go, how about the program just downloads them directly instead and builds a installation script (Batch file or something along those lines).

[iridis]

Microshaft sheesh, AP did more to rescue winblows boxes for me than MS update (which has been blocked by at least 10 virii to date)

BLEH.

[Barough]

Really sad 2 c the AP go away.

[Mystiq]

Remove all Microsoft releated stuff and release the program without the patches etc. or is that "not allowed" by the all might gods of Microsoft either? Sounds dubious at best.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

Remove all Microsoft releated stuff and release the program without the patches etc. or is that "not allowed" by the all might gods of Microsoft either? Sounds dubious at best.

That would be allowed, just kind of pointless :p

[JiveMasterT]

That would be allowed, just kind of pointless :p

Not really. If there was some sort of a utility that could be used to suck the patches down from Microsoft's website then I think it would be more than awesome.

...this would also drop the requirement for the torrents. The AP would be pretty small and you just let it run to get everything and it could even update its patch list from a central server. That way you download the main thing, it gets the most current list of patches, it includes the tweaks and apps that everyone wants/needs, and anything from MS it just downloads and saves into the repo. When it's done, burn to DVD and take it with you.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

Not really. If there was some sort of a utility that could be used to suck the patches down from Microsoft's website then I think it would be more than awesome.

...this would also drop the requirement for the torrents. The AP would be pretty small and you just let it run to get everything and it could even update its patch list from a central server. That way you download the main thing, it gets the most current list of patches, it includes the tweaks and apps that everyone wants/needs, and anything from MS it just downloads and saves into the repo. When it's done, burn to DVD and take it with you.

like this or this.

Good idea.

[JiveMasterT]

like this or this.

Good idea.

Yeah absolutely. Never heard of either of those tools cause I was spoiled and found the AP early in the game :p

They don't appear to have the big list of tweaks and mods that the AP has though.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

Yeah absolutely. Never heard of either of those tools cause I was spoiled and found the AP early in the game :p

They don't appear to have the big list of tweaks and mods that the AP has though.

True, I only found them myself a few days ago too :p

[stescaz]

do you think microsoft will reconsider?

[gandolas]

^ I don't think so.

[*John*]

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. ;)

do you think microsoft will reconsider?

^ I don't think so.

?????? :blink:

How can you be back if Microsoft don't reconsider? Unless you can use and distribute patch files downloaded from the Microsoft Website, then there is no, and can be no autopatcher surely? :blink:

[gandolas]

I don't think Microsoft will reconsider, so, we will have to change the way AutoPatcher works. Doing so, we will (hope) comply with Microsoft EULA, and release future versions in the near future.

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

im sure there is just certain patches MS dont want to be released this way, should find out which ones

[james.faction]

So it sounds like teh Autopatcher team is planning to rewrite autopatcher without the microsoft software - so that you download a small autopatcher file, and when you run it, it connects to Microsoft and downloads the administrative install version of all the current updates. You could then use this to update other machines. In fact it would work just the same as Autopatcher does now - the difference being that all the Microsoft software would come from Microsoft, and you'd need to do a Genuine Advantage check to download it.

That's not so bad. It would still save enormous amounts of time in hunting for security fixes and going through a WGA check for every single one...

[The Pot]

I think even after changing the way autopatcher works(interface remains the same but we don't get the updates pre-installed), it'll be much more easier and better for EGPRS (115kbs) connection users like me.

Just make sure this one supports the option of downloading from download managers(like DAP, Flashget, FDM) along with the one supplied by Autopatcher. That is, if someone doesn't have a download manager Autopatcher uses its default app for downloading but if someone has one of these Autopatcher downloads the u[date using them. How about supplying a copy of Free Download Manager with AP for that matter?

[Anne-O-Nimus]

It's one thing to purge the download links, quite another to purge the entire discussion area.

You over-reacted which adds to the confusion.

...

Autopatcher was redistributing updates without authority, including some for which Microsoft requires authentication. That was their mistake.

They should have used a download-to-your-package method similar to Offline Update http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682 to copy the update releases directly from Microsoft to the host directory and include instructions about how to copy the entire directory tree for portability. There is a huge value in the ability to install a series of updates and registry modifications automatically, especially on multiple machines.

I strongly suspect that this action by Microsoft was triggered by my requesting that Microsoft allow my Australian ISP to host the AutoPatcher files. I received canned responses denying the request about 2 weeks ago and now I read about this. The timing is too much of a coincidence for me to believe otherwise.

As I once wrote in a post at the forum (and I agree with Fred Thompson that removing access to that forum was unnecessary over-reaction by neowin staff) it is usually more difficult to ask for permission ahead of time than to apologize after the fact.

If, back in 2003, a concerted effort was made to obtain Microsoft permission to redistribute their update files then this very same position would have been formally communicated by Microsoft and the AP project would have chosen a different course than the one it has taken for the past 4 years.

The idea of maintaining a local cache/CD/DVD of windows updates since the last Service Pack remains a GREAT idea!

Every one (even those of us using dialup) can use the Microsoft Download Center to download (albeit slowly) the various update files that postdate the latest Service Pack. The challenge for many of us is knowing which files to download and then automating the process of installing those updates. A project that makes available a wrapper around such end-user downloaded files is a worthwhile project and need not infringe on the legal rights of Microsoft.

Thanks for the link to the Offline Update project, it looks promising.

:o I am truly sorry if my enquiry served as a lightning rod.

[gxsaurav]

Why can't the Auto Patcher team do this

1) Release package 1 containing only the updates. No 3rd party package

2) Command Line switches for easier integration in XP CD & deployment

3) All the packages which needs WGA to install, check for it.

4) No registry tweaks or uxtheme.dll patch or other such things included.

With this tell autopatcher team to release another pack with

1) 3rd party apps like JAVA runtime

2) Registry tweaks, or uxtheme.dll patch etc

[MenageZer0]

Why can't the Auto Patcher team do this

1) Release package 1 containing only the updates. No 3rd party package

2) Command Line switches for easier integration in XP CD & deployment

3) All the packages which needs WGA to install, check for it.

4) No registry tweaks or uxtheme.dll patch or other such things included.

With this tell autopatcher team to release another pack with

1) 3rd party apps like JAVA runtime

2) Registry tweaks, or uxtheme.dll patch etc

sorry, i should have missed something:

at the moment ms doesn't allow autopatcher to exist anymore (so officially it is no more avaible), and you wonder about how to re-organize the package ?

(moreover, except the "3rd-party" wga check, all of your issues are already resolved in the existing releases by the simple fact that you can always choose what to install and what not to; even c.l. switches for cd integration are already there, but, ok, i've recently read somewhere that it's a new feature and isn't working as expected yet)

[andyjbj]

DID YOU SAY TO MICROSOFT THAT UPDATES SHOD BE ON CD___ WAS WALL AS ON THERE WEB SITE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE INTERNET I>E LIKE NORTON DO

[AOXOMOXOA]

man this really sucks. i do offline updates all the time at work. in fact i am doing one now with the aug core.

i was hoping to get the updated screen savers and backgrounds.

oh well. i hope they bring it back..

thank you all for creating this. i have been using it since 2003 almost everyday.

[Zatoichi]

Thanks for the memories AutoPatch team, it's been a great ride! :cool:

You've made my life infinately easier by not having to DL updates et al. when doing clean installs...

I guess it's time to move onto Mac for me in the DAW situation, tired of the crap M$ has produced before & after XP, which has required constant mainenance in and of itself (XP that is).

Between M$'s capriciousness in banning AP and my wife's recent MacBook purchase I have finally switched over to the dark side, especially given Vista's complete uselessness in the DAW arena.

I hope M$ goes bankrupt!!!

Cheers to the AP Team, especially Blazing Angel :cool:

[sinjon smith]

I would just like to throw my hat in and say, GREAT JOB AP team sorry to see it end this way!! That being said I would also like to take a moment and scorn Neowin for overreacting and taking down non infringing content like the forms. Grow a backbone and get educated about individual rights, the forms are free speech and taking them down is borderline censorship in my opinion.

Now that that is out of the way I would agree with other posts about having some way to wrap or automate the downloads package and burn a cd or dvd. This would eliminate the infringing content issue. This program could be a shell that would allow the user to populate it with the needed files, burn or otherwise archive the files and allow the user to create the desired patch disk.

Another option is to take the project offshore and host and manage the system from a non MS friendly country. I have seen other projects particularly with regard to cryptography do this in order to side skirt US export laws.

Thanks again for providing a truly needed SERVICE something large companies have long forgotten about. I hope this is not the last we see or hear of it.