A day after Microsoft Corp. shut down a free alternative to Windows Update, the program’s 20-year-old developer said he is talking with the company about what it would take to resurrect his project.

Microsoft puts kibosh on a four-year-old “offline Windows Update” tool popular with administrators and consumers, saying it fears the utility could be avenue for malicious software. On the same day ...

Microsoft forced a popular alternative to Windows Update off the Internet Wednesday after sending the maker of AutoPatcher cease-and-desist e-mail. The free utility has been removed from its download ...

AutoPatcher, a four-year-old project to distribute Microsoft patches and other updates to software that runs on Windows, has shut down because of a Microsoft request. "Today we received an e-mail from ...

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Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D ...

Windows: AutoPatcher, the small but powerful utility that makes it easy to install Windows updates while offline, and on multiple systems, has added support for Windows 7, giving users more control ...

The maker of AutoPatcher, which helps users collect and package Windows patches, was served with a cease-and-desist order from Microsoft Microsoft forced a popular alternative to Windows Update off ...

Reinstalling Windows is never a fun process, especially the part just after the installation when you have a seemingly endless list of critical and optional software updates to download and install.