Microsoft Acquires Winternals and Sysinternals

SJasperson writes "In a move that will be good for Redmond but may have consequences for the rest of us, Microsoft has acquired Winternals and Sysinternals. This gives them well-known developers Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell as well as dozens of well-loved and much-praised utilities, both commercial and freeware. Though Mark says on his blog that the Sysinternals site will remain 'for the time being,' this would be a good time to download the latest version of essential Windows tools like Process Explorer before they can go mysteriously missing or be locked up behind the wall of Windows Genuine Advantage."

May I be the first to say.......

Noooooooooooooooo!!!! WHY, God, WHY!?!

Re:May I be the first to say.......

I'm with you. Without Sysinternals software, I would have killed myself when I had to run Windows at work.

I am a little concerned about something else. Russinovich has in the past disclosed certain things (like the Sony rootkit) that he may be in no position to let us in on now that he is a Microsoft employee.

Re:Amen

I hope he got more money than that kid that sold WinAMP to AOL for $100 million.

Re:Amen

Someone please organize a pro-bono heist of Russiniovich's soul from Seattle & give it back to him.

Case is on his way with his Ono-Sendai, and has the extraction planned for tonight. Maas-Biolabs can't keep him protected forever.

May I suggest

If you're going to wget, may I suggest playing nice with rates, delays, and non-essential files:

wget -w 2 --limit-rate=5k -m http://www.sysinternals.com/SysinternalsSiteMap.ht ml [sysinternals.com] -X /Video,/Chat,/Forum,/Blog

A relatively reasonable 81MB and 553 files.

And don't redistribute. As a software author, beyond it being illegal I consider it to be quite disrespectful to the authors if you were to redistribute these files in violation of their license. On the other hand, it certainly seems like a good idea to make a personal copy at this moment, and that certainly IS in accordance with their license.

Re:May I be the first to say.......

Personally, when I get home I'm going to download every single one of those utilities, even the ones I never used, and burn them to disc. Heck, I might create a mirror where people can download the regular 120kB version instead of Microsofts 45MB version.

Re:May I be the first to say.......

Personally, when I get home I'm going to download every single one of those utilities[..]

Bzzt, wrong answer. This is Slashdot, the correct reaction is "who cares, I run Linux."

Re:May I be the first to say.......

Noooooooooooooooo!

Don't panic - this is a good thing. Microsoft need Process Explorer so they can work out what the hell their OS is doing, and then document it for the EU. They'll give it back to the community when they're finished with it.

Why?

WHY, God, WHY!?!

Because you chose to run Microsoft software. These are the consequences.

Re:Why?

Because you chose to run Microsoft software. These are the consequences.

More likely: His employer chooses to run Microsoft software, and Sysinternals actually makes it tolerable.
Time to count your options...

I feel a great disturbance in the force...

..as if millions of slashdotters cried out and then were suddenly silenced.

Mising Components...

After months of ripping out what's not important, Windows Vista is finally getting a heart and a brain. Alas, no courage is yet available.

The Real Answers

Q. What are you announcing?

Resistance is futile.

Q. How does this acquisition affect Winternals' customers?

Cost is going up, delivery is going to suck.

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

There is no such thing anymore.

Q. Why is it a good thing for Winternals' customers?

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

Q. Will I still receive technical support and if so for how long?

How long can you tread water?

Q. Why is Microsoft acquiring Winternals and Sysinternals?

To assimilate.

Q. What exactly is a Technical Fellow?

Microsoft Bob.

Q. How many Technical Fellows are there at Microsoft?

There can be only one.

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?

You're new around here, aren't you?

Q. What were the terms? How much did Microsoft pay for Winternals? Was it a cash or stock deal?

A few spare souls that have not been allocated yet.

Someone

Make a torrent of the latest tools STAT!

Re:Someone

Complete list of the utility URL's -> here [dhcnetwork.com]

Re:Someone

In case you are a Windows user wondering about the easiest, quickest way to download the files and are not familiar with wget:

Get wget from http://www.interlog.com/~tcharron/wgetwin.html [interlog.com] (scan the binaries before installing and executing, of course)

To download the files quickly and easily just copy & paste the filenames into a file (call it utilities.txt), preferably in a new directory (make it easy to ID the files)

Go to the command line in that directory and type:

wget -i utilities.txt

This will download every file in the list to your current working directory.

I suggest you do so ASAP because when Microsoft says that something will always be free, they cannot be trusted.

Re:Someone

Torrent is available and seeding.

http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3504780 [thepiratebay.org]

Single torrent containing all the individiual zip files as downloaded today.

Pre-Microsoft versions in new torrent

The torrrent referenced in the parent has a current set of the utilities. The last-changed dates are this month, at least on important ones such as Process Monitor and regmon. Also a new EULA.txt in each file as another poster mentioned.

There is a new torrent now, pre-MS versions. http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3504886 [thepiratebay.org] See notes therein.

TOO LATE, they already changed the EULA.

I just took a peek at the EULA.TXT included in a fresh download (PsTools .zip file) vs. a copy that came with the same download a couple months ago (file dated Jan 11 2006), and it's *completely* changed. The new version is a "free for personal use only" sorta thing whereas the previous EULA was free for all uses short of infringment and void of warranty. Have to see how well those EULAs hold up. IANAL of course, but it looks to me like if you're a sysadmin at a commercial entity, you can't use their previously-free tools for free any more. Pretty sad. Somebody please tell me I'm reading it wrong....

EULA: for comparison

For comparison, here are the EULAs from two versions of Process Explorer. The new one is far more restrictive, and over *10 times* as long.

Process Explorer 10.11 (old version):
This software is provided "as is" and use of the software is at your own risk. Sysinternals disclaims any and all warranties, whether express, implied or statutory, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement of third-party rights. Sysinternals does not warrant that the software is free of defects.

You are allowed to use software published by Sysinternals at home or at work without paying a commercial license fee provided that you downloaded the software yourself directly from Sysinternals, and:

* Use the software on computers for which you are the primary user; or
* Use the software on computers for which there is no primary user
(e.g. servers, including Terminal Servers) and you are a full-time
employee of the company that owns the computer; or
* Use the software on computers within your residence

A commercial license is required to use the software in any way not covered above, including for example:

* Redistributing the software in any manner, including by computer
media, a file server, an email attachment, etc.
* Embedding the software in or linking it to another program
* Use of the software for technical support on customer computers

Sales of commercial licenses support Sysinternals product development and assure that this Web site continues to offer valuable, up-to-date tools. Established software companies redistribute these utilities and incorporate the code into their products because this offers the potential to save significant development time. Sysinternals commercial licenses are priced according to the complexity of the licensed code and its role in the target application. If you are interested in licensing Sysinternals tools or source code for redistribution or for inclusion with or as part of a software product, please contact [e-mail].

10.2 (new version):
Sysinternals - Information on Terms of Use

ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS.
The services that Sysinternals provides to you are subject to the following Terms of Use ("TOU"). Sysinternals reserves the right to update the TOU at any time without notice to you. The most current version of the TOU can be reviewed by clicking on the "Terms of Use" hypertext link located at the bottom of our Web pages.

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES.
Sysinternals provides you with access to a variety of resources, including utilities, download areas, communication forums and information (collectively "Services"). The Services, including any updates, enhancements, and/or new features are subject to the TOU.

PERSONAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE LIMITATION.
Unless otherwise specified, the Services are for your personal and non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information, software, products or services obtained from the Services.

PRIVACY AND PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION.
See the Privacy Statement disclosures relating to the collection and use of your information.

NOTICE SPECIFIC TO SOFTWARE AVAILABLE ON THIS WEB SITE.
Any software that is made available to download from the Services ("Software") is the copyrighted work of Sysinternals and/or its suppliers. Use of the Software is governed by the terms of the end user license agreement, if any, which accompanies or is included with the Software ("License Agreement"). The Software is made available

In other news

The (near) monopoly maker of flat tires buys out all of the patch companies.

From the article

Before it gets slashdotted:

Q. What are you announcing?
A. Winternals and Sysinternals have been acquired by Microsoft. Winternals is a leading provider of systems recovery tools for Windows-based enterprises worldwide and Sysinternals is one of the leading community and enthusiast sites for people interested in information about the internals of the Windows operating system.

Q. How does this acquisition affect Winternals' customers?
A. Microsoft will stop and kill everything as soon as all legal, hardcopy contracts are over

Q. Will you continue selling Winternals' portfolio of products?
A. No, it will get integrated halfly into Windows 2006 though.

Q. Why is it a good thing for Winternals' customers?
A. It is a good thing because now they can't spend any money anymore on stupid tools and they can finally switch to Linux

Q. Will I still receive technical support and if so for how long?
A. Winternals will continue to provide technical support for the current term of your Product Assurance Contract.

Q. Why is Microsoft acquiring Winternals and Sysinternals?
A. Extend, embrace and extuingish.

Q. What exactly is a Technical Fellow?
A. The guy that will come install Linux on your servers

Q. How many Technical Fellows are there at Microsoft?
A. A lot, they are undercover penguins.

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.

Q. What were the terms? How much did Microsoft pay for Winternals? Was it a cash or stock deal?
A. Microsoft threatened with a lawsuit over some of the programs.

Oh Boo Hoo

I love their tools too, but why the commotion?

Good for them. Now they get fat paychecks, good bonuses, and they work for the empire.

And I'd bet that if MSFT offered you $$$$ for whatever you were making, and a fat paycheck with good bonuses - you'd be a fool to not take it...

Re:Oh Boo Hoo

I used to get a fat paycheck and great bonuses. Now I make less money and no longer touch Microsoft software. I'm much much happier. Money isn't everything.

Re:Oh Boo Hoo

Would your wife and children prefer that you be miserable and making more money? I hope to god not. Your misery will rain on them every day when you come home all pissed off or distracted.

People can live on less money you know. Lots of people with wives and kids manage to live on salaries you would consider insulting.

Re:Oh Boo Hoo

Of course failure is not tolerated...

Admiral Cogswell: Lord Ballmer, the company has moved out of hyperspace and we are preparing too...unk...ack...cough

Lord Ballmer: You and your cogs have failed me for the last time Admiral....Captain Russinovich!

Captain Russinovich: Yes, Lord Ballmer.

Admiral Cogswell: hack....cough

Lord Ballmer: Make ready to deploy our programs beyond their firewall and deploy the company so that nobody can switch OS...you are in command now Admiral Russinovich.

Admiral Cogswell: THUNK!

Captain Russinovich: Thank you, Lord Ballmer.

Interoperability

This has to be seen in the context of anti-interoperability action of Microsoft and orders from the competition authorities e.g. in the European Union. Still Microsoft fails to comply with the documentation orders of the European Union.

Now Microsoft takes over tools which enable interoperability with its plattform and puts them under their licensing control. What we will see next is a restrictive Microsoft EULA for it which discourages use for reengineering or interoperability for Ms competitors etc.

Worth to file a complaint at the responsible EU competition consumer liason office [europa.eu].

Looking for Windows kernel experts...

Does anyone else find it a little funny that Microsoft bought out Winternals to get Mark Russinovich? According to a Microsoft employee [com.com], "Mark is one of the top five or 10 people in the world when it comes to Windows internals." I'd believe that, but isn't it just a little funny that Microsoft had to go to a 3rd party company to find an expert in the internals of Windows?

Re:Looking for Windows kernel experts...

No, it's not funny at all. Why would someone who spent time understanding something have to work for the company that made it? On top of that, few people at Microsoft would ever have to work with so many of the different parts of Windows to be able to be considered an expert in the internals of Windows. There are probably a tonne of people in MS that know a hell of a lot more about their part then he does, but have little to do with other parts.

No longer an independent.

Some of Mark's blog entries in the past have cited shortcomings and oversights in Windows systems and he has often provided utilities to get around/address them. Now that Mark is a Microsoft employee, will such criticism be forthcoming, or silenced?

Mark's investigations into Windows workings have been very informational and useful over the years. Now that he'll be under NDA and non-compete...

Re:Anything SysInternals did was the best...

Now, there is still hope to get competition authorities involved to stop the merger or reach better licensing conditions. Take Article 81 and Article 82:

Article 81 of the EC Treaty (ex Article 85)

1. The following shall be prohibited as incompatible with the common market: all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which may affect trade between Member States and which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the common market, and in particular those which:

(a) directly or indirectly fix purchase or selling prices or any other trading conditions;

(b) limit or control production, markets, technical development, or investment;

(c) share markets or sources of supply;

(d) apply dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage;

(e) make the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts.
2. Any agreements or decisions prohibited pursuant to this Article shall be automatically void.
3. The provisions of paragraph 1 may, however, be declared inapplicable in the case of:

- any agreement or category of agreements between undertakings;

- any decision or category of decisions by associations of undertakings;

- any concerted practice or category of concerted practices,

which contributes to improving the production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical or economic progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit, and which does not:

(a) impose on the undertakings concerned restrictions which are not indispensable to the attainment of these objectives;

(b) afford such undertakings the possibility of eliminating competition in respect of a substantial part of the products in question.

Article 82 of the EC Treaty (ex Article 86)

Any abuse by one or more undertakings of a dominant position within the common market or in a substantial part of it shall be prohibited as incompatible with the common market insofar as it may affect trade between Member States.

Such abuse may, in particular, consist in:

(a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions;

(b) limiting production, markets or technical development to the prejudice of consumers;

(c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage;

(d) making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts.

All you have to do is file a complaint under Article 82 or 81 EC Treaty:

European Commission
Competition DG
Antitrust Registry
B-1049 Bruxelles

Or just mail to [e-mail]

What you need to provide about yourself and your enterprise and how to write a complaint see

Re:Anything SysInternals did was the best...

Some Microsoftie marked the parent comment as flamebait. However, it seems likely that Microsoft bought SysInternals to silence a web site that provided software of far higher quality than software from Microsoft.

*ahem* Flamebait? Pot, kettle, black.

Somehow, I think that silencing [microsoft.com] SysInternals [microsoft.com] would [microsoft.com] break [microsoft.com] a lot of [microsoft.com] Microsoft's [microsoft.com] links [microsoft.com].

Seriously. I know everybody loves to bash Microsoft, but for God's sake, is it too hard to believe that they honestly want to *gasp* hire top-quality programmers? The sysinternals guys have proven themselves to be top-quality coders. They make utilities that the MSDN knowledge base references 172 times [microsoft.com]. MS developers use Sysinternals tools. They think the Sysinternals guys are smart, knowledgeable about their system, and could add value to their company. So, they hire them.

All this conspiracy about "silencing a website" is crap. They wouldn't recommend the use of Sysinternals tools if they were embarrassed by them.

If Redhat could convince, say, Larry Wall to work for them, doing the projects they want developed, would that be a conspiracy? Larry Wall is a kickass contributor to Linux (via Perl), and he would add value to any Linux-oriented company that could retain him. The Sysinternals guys hold a similar relationship and relevance to Microsoft.

Just in time for Vista...

I've found Process Explorer and Registry Explorer to be great tools to help find out exactly what's going on in a Windows box, and they're great for tracking down malware. They're a hell of a lot more useful than the ctrl-alt-del dialog box in XP.

I'm sure with Vista coming out soon that Redmond would love to obfuscate or disappear these utilities that would help let people know what Vista is really doing under the hood.

Re:Microsoft as the borg...

How is this insightful?

When Google hired Guido van Rossum (Python head-honcho), there were no "Google is hiring this guy only to NDA valuable information from the rest of us" comments. Everybody understood that Google merely found a bright guy doing something related to their business (Google uses Python on a massive scale) and snapped him up. But when MICROSOFT hires a coupla guys who seem to be doing something cool with Windows, we get dumb comments like "Yet another proof that Microsoft can't behave like a normal market player".

Look, I hate Microsoft as much as the next geek (*more*, probably, as I've been stuck developing exclusively on PCs since DOS 2.1), and I'm sure SysInternals will soon disappear, but comments like "they feel the need to control everything under the sun" just don't add anything to the discussion.

Good news, bad news

I've followed Mark's advice and used some of his utilities for years. I will be forever grateful for the things I learned by analyzing the source code to some of the utilities. I think Mark is entitled to cash in on his effort, but I'm not very optimistic about the quality of stuff that will come from Winternals from now on. Mark (and Winternals) was independent and worked at an independent pace, which is going to degrade now that there are layers of bureaucracy added.

On the other hand, the Winternals utilities represent about 10% (IMO) of the utilities needed to really analyze and fix Windows when it malfunctions. I'm too old to do this myself, but maybe a group of ambitious analysts could step up and continue the good work. Even more important, maybe a good group of analysts could develop a methodology for analyzing the OS and then point the way toward needed utilities.

I'm actually feeling a little grief over the demise of Winternals as an independent company.

at least we still have OSR

Check out http://www.osronline.com/ [osronline.com] . They have some similar utilities and are the place to go for windows device driver questions and debug. They are the folks that finally fixed much of the DDK documenation . I still have the mugs they gave away for finding doc errors.
By the way, I highly recommend their classes. I have taken a bunch of them and I am pretty sure that these folks know windows internals better than any other organization...maybe even MS.

Guess which tool isn't accessible

http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecove ry/locksmith.asp [winternals.com]

what a surprise... Microsoft takes down the locksmith. Anyone have it for me?
Thanks

Headline in a month...

Google aquires former Microsoft developers Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell