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Microsoft Wins Over Winternals
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-07-18
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
The Austin-based company recently settled a lawsuit with electronics retailer Best Buy, and will now be part of the operating system company their software was designed to troubleshoot.
Winternals has become a Microsoft subsidiary, and SysInternals will continue to provide its advanced utilities, technical information, and source code to customers from that freeware tools website.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but new assignments for Winternals founders Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell were. Russinovich will join Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division as a technical fellow. Cogswell joins the Windows Component Platform Team in the role of software architect.
Jim Allchin, outgoing co-oreseidnet of the Platforms & Services Division, said of Russinovich in a statement that he'd been watching his work for a while. "The addition of their deep kernel-level expertise to our existing strong talent will help provide us with the edge we need to continue to raise the quality and functionality bar for Windows on both the client and the server," said Allchin.
There hasn't always been such affection from Microsoft for Winternals, though. The Dr. Dobb's website reflected on how the company's first name, NT Internals, angered Microsoft due to the perceived violation of the Windows NT trademark. Cogswell and Russinovich changed the name.
Russinovich gained fame in 2005 over his discovery that music CDs from Sony BMG deposited a rootkit on PCs via the DRM software used on the discs. That led to a lawsuit against Sony BMG, a settlement over the DRM, and an astonishing nightmare for Sony's PR people who watched helplessly as company executives kept inflaming the issue with their public comments.
On his blog, Russinovich observed that the integration details regarding Winternals, SysInternals, and Microsoft had not been fully determined yet:
So what's going to happen to Winternals and Sysinternals? 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.
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Tag: Winternals
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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