I have to rebuild a number of computers every year here at work. Even though I have WSUS servers, I still prefer to use AutoPatcher. One of the most important reasons behind that decision is that the MS patches are sequenced – install this one and then, after restarting, it calls for the next one that couldn’t be installed in combination with the others. No such nonsense with AutoPatcher. Choose what you want (with many more useful options than MS provides) and then let it go. It’s all done in one shot – no problem.
This is the tool that MS should have been providing all along for those of us who work with their OS’s for a living.
The fact that a small team of guys based in Greece were able to do this for 4 years with a consistently high level of performance with only contributions and a strong sense of service to keep them going must have been an irritant to MS. The team did it better, faster and at no cost to the end user – talk about getting in MS’s face!
They will be missed by thousands of users all over the world, with me among them.

Unfortunately, real improving change takes far too much time, but it is unavoidable.
Reminds me of the now “Junk-bond” status of “The Big Three” (GM, Ford, Chrysler), who, for reasons unknown – other than corporate exec hyper-egotistical profit-taking power-hungry dysbehavior – decided against listening to their customer base regarding safety, durability, and economy; opting to force their ignorant power over the entire industry, … until the Orient began building the kind of automobiles people really wanted, and could use reliably.
The Ford Pinto “Timeless-bomb” was in the 70′s, and it has taken this long before Ford has really had to pay the price for their horrible attitude(s). They were counting on the “loyalty” factor, and the tradition (for which they paid in false advertising) that “Buying American” was God’s blessing.
Today most every automobile in the US is either imported – wholly – from the Orient, … perhaps via Mexico; or it has Oriental powerplants (the best being Mitsubishi in Chrysler products).
I remember the words of a science teacher in Issaqua, WA: “Ellsworth’s Law of Social Inertia: you can only change the trends of society by exerting a little pressure over a long time, or by exerting a lot of pressure over a short time. Otherwise society tends to continue moving in the direction it’s already going.”

Sad, but true. M$ has continually been pushing and shoving its way into history – first, by attacking “Potiential competition”, such as Lotus, with DO$ 2.11, 3.x, 5.x and finally DO$ 6.x which wiped me out as a programmer. That was when we actually had a “choice” to avoid Windows. Now they have obliterated that option and are replacing a bad series of GUI-OS’es which only worked sporadically with WGA, which – by design – sporadically, and intentionally, shuts down whole systems – either a little at a time, or totally.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or a Psychologist to see their goal and their game. It was always some form of conquest. Now that it has turned on the very customer base it should be serving, the focus has shifted to China. That should be interesting.

It’s a tragedy that the only real improvement to come out of Redmond – now that they have few true software companies to buy or destry – is the switch-pulling monster of destruction. The BSOD was bad enough, but now they boast of a power/ability to successfully attack any user they deem ± “Pirate”.

Inertia is already turning society against them. Let’s hope it doesn’t take 30 years before foolish people begin to fit the punishment to the crime.

It pretty obvious to me that what MS is doing is trying to force people to buy Vista. If you can’t fix XP, in their eyes, you’ll HAVE to buy Vista.

Well written.