Goodbye Sysinternals! Hello MS RootKit Revealer..
July 18, 2006
I was shocked when I followed a link from the ZTree forum over to Winternals.com. Winternals and Systernals are sites that host some of the very best and most unique core operating system tools out there and most of it is free…
This announcement comes one week to the day after the Austin Texas based Winternals, with its 80+ employees, reached a settlement with Best Buy and its subsidiary Geek Squad. So, this is a bangup month for Winternals.
Even the non-geek heard of the firestorm that erupted over Mark’s discovery of a Root Kit installed by Sony CDs. Well, that discovery was made while he was beta-testing a recent version of RootKit Revealer, one of the may free tools he offers on his site. Well, now we have to call it the Microsoft Rootkit Revealer.
Mark is no stranger to the people at Microsoft. It is unlikely that his near-celebrity status was what drew Microsoft’s eye. In fact, I beleive Mark has been a key speaker at Microsoft’s Technet Canada’s IT conference Energize IT!
So, now Mark has a chance to take their advice to “Get your geek on!” for real. The Winternals FAQ of course views this as a very positive move:
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.
This can only be a good thing for founders Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell personally. And I wish them all the best. Mark blogged:
I’m joining Microsoft as a technical fellow in the Platform and Services Division, which is the division that includes the Core Operating Systems Division, Windows Client and Windows Live, and Windows Server and Tools. I’ll therefore be working on challenging projects that span the entire Windows product line and directly influence subsequent generations of the most important operating system on the planet. From security to virtualization to performance to a more manageable application model, there’s no end of interesting areas to explore and innovate.
You see that term there? “Technical Fellow” – that’s a BIG deal. That means he’s regarded as one of the top 14 technicians at Microsoft. To quote Bill Gates: “Impressive. Most impressive.” or was it Bill that said that? anyway, the big question is if that innovation will be stifled by the obligations entailed in managing a software package with such a wide global distribution.
And what is going to happen to all of those free tools from Sysinternals?
Mark tells us:
Microsoft is still evaluating the best way to leverage the many different technologies that have been developed by Winternals. Some will find their ways into existing Microsoft products or Windows itself and others will continue on as Microsoft-branded products. As for Sysinternals, the site will remain for the time being while Microsoft determines the best way to integrate it into its own community efforts, and the tools will continue to be free to download.
Well, I’ll wager that Mark and Bryce are off on a two week island vacation right about now and I think I’ll go start downloading the existing tools now… Ta!
PS: I feel like I should apologize to Bryce Cogswell. He’s just behind the scenes in this move. I get the feeling he’s Winternals Paul Allen. With Paul’s personal assets of $22 billion USD, I suppose there are worse comparisons to be made…
PPS: It is interesting to note that people have begun to point to the missing LockSmith download page as an indicator of MS’s plan for the free tools. (Google Cache of the Page) I think it is more likely that during the rebranding of the SysInternals site, they got rid of a page that described a tool that could no longer be downloaded outside of the Administrators Pak. Perhaps bad timing on their part.
Related articles:
- CNet News. And yes, that news.com.com appears to be a valid web site and hot a hijacking… of all the things to name a site…
- Anti Root kit
- ComputerWorld
- Microsoft Buys Data Protection, Recovery Tools Developer
If you like this article Digg It! ( My first attempt at Digg’ing. I feel like that frog from Kellogs but I guess he was Diggem…)
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