AutoPatcher, "I'll be back, soon..."

[aku]

AutoPatcher, the name sounds familiar, isn't it?
Sure it does, kind of a savior for 'all' those souls using Microsoft Windows Operating System. When i say 'all', i really do mean it.

Ahh.. happy times, just get a copy of AutoPatcher from the net, borrow it from your friend... it doesnt matter where you get it from (as long its the official release). Sure it did save a lot of both bandhwith and time.

But it was during the happy times.. then we all got the heart breaking news of AutoPatcher being ceased by Microsoft...

Posted by Antonis Kaladis
Today (August 29th, 2007) 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.

Now it seems, AutoPatcher will be back in a new avatar, quite soon i guess..

Posted by Antonis Kaladis

I have mentioned several times that we are working on something, so given the mood I'm in right now, I think I might as well post some very early screenshots of what's to come.

Remember, my "job" here is programming, not making the actual releases. Since I'm sure your first question will be "when," let me just say that it depends on how fast team members can write the "scripts" for this application.

Since I'm the code-and-try type, I just had to attempt writing a script of my own. I tried writing one for the English XP release. So far the script covers all of Microsoft's critical patches and most of their non-critical ones. I actually ran into trouble with one of the non-critical patches (one which apparently need to be extracted first -- but probably in a non-standard way).

Anyway, here's what I got so far:

My starting point.

AutoPatcher fetched a link with available releases and automatically selected those applicable to my system.

Downloading the selected items. Note that Microsoft stuff comes directly from Microsoft. If the process is interrupted, the program will pickup where it left, when rerun. When downloading is done, you will end up with the usual AutoPatcher folder layout.

As I said in some comments, the only change is that instead of downloading one huge file via your browser/download manager, you will be downloading many smaller ones via a custom downloader/preparer. The bonus is of course:
1. Easier to combine releases. You just select which ones you want to get and they are combined for you.
2. Easier to upgrade. You just run the updater each month so you can get the latest updates added to AutoPatcher.
3. No need to use NSIS anymore. Once you're done downloading you can transfer the folder in a USB stick or CD.
4. No more confusion. There will only be one package offered on autopatcher.com (the updater). No more "which release do I need" or "do I need to download the update release" or "will NSIS install anything on my computer."

Antonis Kaladis

http://www.autopatcher.com/139#more-139

Update

New version of AutoPatcher Updater (APUP - Nov. 25), Sneak Preview: Still a early Beta!

Ok, here it is the new version that Antonis released. You may download it http://www.autopatcher.com/files/apup.zip .

I give you the same warning as before: this is a early beta release, so you may find some bugs.

Edit: some features requested by some users weren't implemented yet.

Edit 2: Added new version that it's supposed to fix the download errors.

Edit 3: This new version (Nov 25) can now correctly decompress zip files, and can now create a log file. Now it's just the time for us to edit the scripts with some big changes.

Edit 4: I've updated now the server with the new file. To see if you have the latest, the details are: size: 714444 bytes, MD5 hash: 509B655CF09950E5C5619A6DDBB189DD.

Enjoy !

[din]

Cool

This is really great.

AP, we al love yah

[Third Eye]

Awesome News

[sandeepk]

Thats a great news!!! Thanks!!

[alsiladka]

Awesome. One folder on the USB, use it on any system. Hope it comes out well.

[aku]

@sandeepk.. u r welcum mate...
thank the author, Antonis, he's the one who truly deserves this...

well pray for Antonis and keep ur fingers crossed...

i hope we'll all witness the re-incarnation of one of our most fav. apps, quite soon, as i said earlier

[anandk]

nice info. thanx

[casanova]

This looks better than previous one. Cool

[infra_red_dude]

awesome... i can't wait for the release take that, MS!

[aakash_mishra]

My fingers are crossed

Hoping some good news from M$

[[xubz]]

Originally Posted by aakash_mishra

My fingers are crossed

Hoping some good news from M$

Autopatcher was actually closed down because MS thought it is possible to include malware within the updates!

So the new version actually downloads the updates directly from Microsoft.
i.e. Its just a Client now! (A Replacement for WindowsUpdate.com)

But, It stores the files on your HD, so you can just back them up for later use

Even I hope for some good news.. Imagine if MS plays smart and makes something like WGA validation to even access download servers.

[gary4gar]

Cool but waiting for M$ to respond

[aku]

naah.. AP was brought down because of wga issues.
you see, normally if one would try to download these updates from the ms site, one would have to go through the wga check before downloading these updates.
But in case of ap, there is simply no need of the wga check (sans for a few updates).

Lets see how it all goes.

[praka123]

MS means "i am neutral/admire Microsoft"
M$ means "I hate microsoft and its evil business strategies and FUD"
so next time use m$ if ur serious.

[aku]

tx mate.. i seriously wasn't aware of that.

[ax3]

great news ....... hush ...... no need 2 update from now ......


hope they really start it AGAIN ........

[aku]

yes, finally we can get our hands at the preview

[ssdivisiongermany1933]

Autopatcher seems to be T-1000 machine of terminator that i'll be back .. and microsoft as skynet .....

[Cool G5]

^Yeah.Rise of the Autopatcher.
Good news.

[The Conqueror]

works fine
but problem is ,
I want all .exe updates in one folder
that is when installing large amounts of updates its hard to open each folder and do the update.
plus if they all are in 1 folder than we can integrate them in xp installation cd

[cool_techie_tvm]

Thanks for the info

[Krazy_About_Technology]

Ya That'll be good. Although with Vista, my personal experience is that OS re-installation cycles are not as small as with XP so Windows Update also works fine. But ya, its a pain to again and again download all the stuff. And if re-installation happens when i dont have any internet connection, it'll be a hell lotta problem to work with Vista. So autopatcher's comeback is welcome.

[Voldy]

Cool and will wait for it

[aku]

@cool_techie_tvm ... u r welcome man

btw this release is havin some bugs, i personally got the 'run time error' quite a few times...
but one thing is for sure.. it works