Winternals Acquired

Microsoft has acquired Winternals Software LP, a privately held developer of advanced system utilities. Winternals was cofounded by Windows expert and author Mark Russinovich, who added to his notoriety in Nov. 2005 when he, along with others, discovered a rootkit distributed as part of a digital rights management system used by Sony BMG Music. Russinovich will join Microsoft as one of 14 Technical Fellows-a list that includes database guru Jim Gray and .NET Architect Anders Heijlsberg, among others. Winternals’ s cofounder, Bryce Cogswell, will become a Software Architect. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Besides a set of utilities such as Recover Manager, a tool that creates snapshots of essential system files and settings, and Administrator’s Pak, a collection of tools to help IT administrators repair unbootable systems and remove malware from infected systems, the deal gives Microsoft one of the foremost experts on the Windows OS kernel with specific experience in detecting and removing malware, such as rootkits. The addition of Russinovich and Cogswell, along with Winternals’s utilities, could certainly help Microsoft in its ongoing efforts to make Windows more robust against attacks. What remains to be seen, however, is whether Russinovich, as a Microsoft employee, will be as free to criticize the actions of Microsoft and third parties on sensitive subjects such as identifying software as malware.