Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell have had a very, very big month. First, their company, Winternals Software, settled a lawsuit they brought against Best Buy and its Geek Squad subsidiary, resolving claims that Geek Squad technicians were routinely using bootleg copies of Winternals diagnostic and repair tools.
And today comes word that Microsoft has bought Winternals Software. The good news is that the legendary free utilities Winternals produces will continue to be free – for now. No telling how long that will last, though, so if you’re smart you’ll download what you need now, before it vanishes.
Congratulations, Mark and Bryce. And congratulations to Microsoft for a great acquisition.
I’m happy for Mark and Bryce, but I’m worried about the utilities. I use the free versions of Filemon, Process Explorer, Regmon, Autoruns, TDImon and the PSTools utilities almost every day. They’re too useful to either screw up or put behind a pay wall.
I’m surprised the Geeks had the knowledge to even use the tools. I thought all they did was formatted and reinstalled. (From personal experience with my customers.)
Glad to see Mark and Bryce make out. I hope we don’t lose their expertise.
Other than the Inside and Out books, the Winternals books are my favorite. Good for them!
I was one of the many people who worried that their toolset would be put under lock and key, but I would like to think that if they signed any deal with MS, keeping their free tools free would be a provision of the deal.