What happened to WinPatrol and their Website

They now offer anonymous license for 4.95 , but still the same old software from May 2017 , no updates since then . Support does noy answer any emails , tried 4 times , nothing . Seems they are out of business and trying to sell as much as they can to suckers . 

Although no one seems to know what has happened to Bret Lowry, the founder of Ruiware, I would not call users of WinPatrol suckers. It still is a useful program and excellent startup manager.

Although no one seems to know what has happened to Bret Lowry, the founder of Ruiware, I would not call users of WinPatrol suckers. It still is a useful program and excellent startup manager.

Talking more about the firewall and anti ransom  software . Not much good if it's not been updated in over 1 year , unless you know something about the programs I'm not aware of ? By the way I bought licenses for all 3 in 2016 , winpatrol is the only one still useful .

I don't think it is fair to offer a license to a product that has no support . And I've tried to contact , with valid license and got no reply , that is just plain wrong .

WinPatrol WAR and WinPatrol Firewall are separate programs...I peronally have never found the need to use either of them.

I was active during the development of WinPatrol WAR - the Anti Ransomware software.  The approach is quite straight forward and seems to be still useful today.  It simply tests any incoming attempt to change any file in a "controlled folder - list of files/programs" against a white list of program files that are "approved" by the user - like a sandbox approach.  You are asked to "approve" any new file [.exe etc.] that pops up.  Thus, there is not much need for updates to the basic software - unless there is a major change affecting how the basic concept operates.  Note that Microsoft has a similar approach now, called "Controlled Folder Access", under Security>Ransomware Protection.  It seems to follow a similar approach, but alas is far less user friendly.  In my prior message, I passed on a comment from Bret [owner of the software firm] re that the release of the Microsoft product was apt to be "the writing on the wall" that would lead to closing out 3rd parties like him.  Seems that has come true.  At least, I feel that WAR still has use - and hope that Microsoft makes their product more user friendly in time.  Alas, hope is only 50/50.

Cheers.

Edited by OLDXTECH, 13 August 2018 - 04:42 PM.

Well we were auto-billed and I cannot get a hold of anyone to cancel and it is not right we can be charged and have no way of stopping it.  I filed a complaint with FL BBB since I cant get a hold of anyone and will be disputing charges.  Sad.  I trusted this company/software for MANY years.  And since I cannot contact anyone, makes me wonder if the software itself may be some sort of back door to our systems.  Ugh.

 

https://malwaretips.com/threads/winpatrol-plus-no-longer-developed.86426/

Edited by katPHish, 06 January 2019 - 11:09 AM.

There is no need to worry about the software itself...WinPatrol is safe to use. As for Brett Lowery and the comments he made to another users at MalwareTips, that is another matter. At the least he should have posted an announcement and stopped auto-renewals. Not doing so is certainly disappointing and unethical.

There is no need to worry about the software itself...WinPatrol is safe to use. As for Brett Lowery and the comments he made to another users at MalwareTips, that is another matter. At the least he should have posted an announcement and stopped auto-renewals. Not doing so is certainly disappointing and unethical.

to say the least , though who knows maybe he is sick and just forgot to cancel those renewals , cc company should take care of that quickly .

Well since I am not a programmer and cant reverse engineer the software code, I have to trust the company.  My comment is because I cannot get a hold of anyone and have been trying for months and since they still have the ability to take my money, someone should respond.  So if I cant get help it seems sketchy and so my trust level is zero.  If the company has been bought by some underhanded folks, what is to stop them from inserting trojans, loggers, etc.  I have no idea who owns the company now.  From what I read Brett left/sold the company.  This is so much inconsistent info out there.  It makes the whole company look sketchy.  Hopefully the software is still "safe". Again I am sad at the whole situation and was a long time user.

Since the current older software already being used is not being updated, I don't think there is a chance of someone introducing a new version tainted with some type of malware. I also don't see the "bad guys" wanting to invest a large amount of money to purchase a company like WinPatrol just to introduce malware in the public sphere. As a known entity with a corporate address, they would be investigated and quickly arrested/closed down by the authorities. Most criminals typically rely heavily on social engineering and human exploit/interaction (the weakest link in security) to target a large audience. There is much less risk of being tracked down and little upfront financial costs.

Of course, if we confirm the company was sold/purchased by another individual and offering new versions of WinPatrol products, folks can then proceed with caution until the new company and owner can be verified as legit.

I do however share the same concern about Ruiware, LLC still taking money from folks via auto-renewal with no option to stop the transaction. Filing a complaint with the BBB was the correct thing to do and hopefully their investigators will get to the bottom of things. You should also contact and advise the credit card company and or bank involved in the transaction, since they have investigators too,

Hey, Quietman. I wish for you to be well. Belated happy holidays to you, sir.

 

If I might ask, do you happen to have an opinion of the performances of the latter versions of winpatrol as a Ruiware (I almost typed "Ruinware") product compared to the former versions under Bill P? If you do not have an opinion, I still appreciate your input.

 

Thank you very much.  Have a marvelous week.

Thanks for the belated holiday greetings....I wish the same for you.

I have only used the WinPatrol PLUS product which essentially stayed the same as when Bill P was behind it. Bret did release a few new versions with minor updates but nothing that drastically altered its functionality. WP is still a very good start-up manager which is why I continue to use it.

Much obliged for the wishes and reply as always.

 

Yeah, I use winpatrol plus as well.  I updated how ever many years ago.  I think that I did when Ruiware initially started its business as the owner/developer of winpatrol.  With that said, I still use winpatrol on both of my laptops, but I upgraded from the Bill P versions to Ruiware versions a few years ago.  I do not plan to stop using winpatrol.  I recall reading the change logs over the years, especially when I updated winpatrol, but I guess that I was questioning if the program/security utility might perform/run more effectively and/or efficiently under one ownership/developer compared to the other.

Edited by Without_A_Monitor, 16 January 2019 - 03:17 PM.

I kept a copy of the last version released by Bill (just in case) before updating with versions release by Bret. I always like to err on the side of caution and safety but fortunately I never find the need to go back.

A most reasonable decision indeed to keep previous versions.  I think that I have some of them, including under BIll P, on my older laptop.

 

I appreciate your most knowledgeable input as always. Thanks.