14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has always tried to destroy everything that stood in its way of controlling the software market and thus bringing billions in revenue. After having so much trouble with software piracy the Redmond company promised it would deliver new ways of stopping this unfortunate event all over the world. After ensuring that any software problem can be fixed with patches from the Microsoft website and also ensuring that this process takes place only when a genuine software product key is recognized, Microsoft started the attack against piracy on a new front as well.
On August 29, Atonis Kaladis, the AutoPatcher Project Manager said "Today we received an e-mail from Microsoft, requesting the immediate take-down of the download page, which of course means that AutoPatcher is probably history. As much as we disagree, we can do very little, and although the download page is merely a collection of mirrors, we took the download page down. We would like to thank you for your support. For the past 4 years, it has been a blast. Unfortunately, it seems like it's the end of AutoPatcher as we know it", according to their website, AutoPatcher.com. And so after 4 years of peaceful coexistence the heads of Microsoft probably thought that the AutoPatcher project might concern a threat and with one simple e-mail it was shut down. Now the only source of patches and updates remains the Microsoft website which means that only the users of genuine software will have access to them, at least that's the general idea.
AutoPatcher served for 4 years the needs of Windows 2000 and Windows XP users by combining the advantage of both Windows Update (presentation and description of updates and automated installation), and the special administrative updates (portability and installation without the need of an Internet connection). It is most likely that these special administrative updates finally got to the Redmond company because this special attribute meant that the updates could also be added to unregistered software and so it could sustain or even encourage the use of pirated software. With this step Microsoft consolidated its position of owning a software distribution but also gave a hard blow to all those who used the AutoPatcher. Only time will tell if Microsoft did the right choice when taking this decision.