Sysinternals
| Company type | Private (before acquisition) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Founder | Bryce Cogswell, Mark Russinovich |
| Defunct | 2006 |
| Fate | Acquired by Microsoft |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Bryce Cogswell, Mark Russinovich |
| Products | Windows Sysinternals utilities, data recovery software, professional-grade system tools |
| Owner | Microsoft (since 2006) |
| Website | learn |
Windows Sysinternals is a website dedicated to providing specialized utilities designed for managing, diagnosing, troubleshooting, and monitoring Microsoft Windows systems. Initially launched in 1996 under the name ntinternals, it was managed by Winternals Software LP, a company headquartered in Austin, Texas and co-founded by software engineers Bryce Cogswell and Mark Russinovich. On July 18, 2006, Microsoft completed the acquisition of Winternals along with its intellectual property.
The platform offered a variety of free tools aimed at Windows system administration and performance monitoring. In addition to these freeware utilities, Winternals marketed data recovery programs and professional-grade versions of its software. Following the acquisition, these tools were incorporated into Microsoft's product lineup.
Winternals Software LP
Established by Cogswell and Russinovich, Winternals attracted significant attention during the 2005 Sony BMG CD copy protection controversy after Russinovich highlighted the issue on the Sysinternals blog.
Microsoft finalized its purchase of the company on July 18, 2006. Russinovich indicated that Sysinternals would continue its operations until Microsoft developed an official distribution channel for its utilities. Nonetheless, certain tools such as NT Locksmith were promptly withdrawn, along with most of their source code. As of April 2025, Sysinternals functions under the Windows Sysinternals brand within Microsoft Docs.
In late 2010, Cogswell stepped down from his role at Sysinternals.
Products
Windows Sysinternals provides a wide array of complimentary utilities primarily created by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell. Notable examples include Process Explorer, a sophisticated substitute for the default Windows Task Manager; Autoruns, a leading application startup manager; RootkitRevealer, a tool designed to detect rootkits; as well as others like Contig and PageDefrag, totaling 65 distinct utilities. Many of these are conveniently packaged together in the Sysinternals Suite to facilitate distribution. The now-discontinued NTFSDOS, which allowed access to NTFS volumes from MS-DOS environments, is no longer available.
The earlier Winternals Administrator Pak featured tools such as ERD Commander 2005, Remote Recover 3.0, Crash Analyzer Wizard, and AD Explorer Insight for Active Directory management.
After becoming part of Microsoft, Sysinternals introduced new utilities including RAMMap in 2010—an advanced memory analysis tool compatible with Windows Vista and later—and Sysmon in 2014, which monitors system events and logs security-related activities to the Windows Event Log.
In November 2018, Microsoft revealed plans to port key Sysinternals tools like ProcDump and ProcMon to Linux platforms, thereby broadening their applicability beyond Windows operating systems.
Licensing issue with Best Buy
In April 2006, Geek Squad, a technical support service affiliated with Best Buy, faced allegations of utilizing unlicensed copies of the ERD Commander software. Winternals had initially supplied Best Buy with copies for evaluation during contract discussions; however, after negotiations failed, Best Buy did not instruct Geek Squad to discontinue or remove the software. Consequently, on April 14, a judge issued a restraining order mandating that all unauthorized use cease immediately and required Best Buy to return all copies of Winternals software within twenty days. Following a settlement agreement, Geek Squad was authorized to use properly licensed versions of Winternals products.
See also
External links
- Official Sysinternals site on Microsoft Docs
- Sysinternals Live directory – A repository of utilities accessible directly
- Winternals main page – Redirects to a Microsoft Bing search for "winternals"
- Articles with short description
- Computing websites
- Companies based in Austin, Texas
- Data recovery software
- Defunct software companies of the United States
- Internet properties established in 1996
- Microsoft free software
- Microsoft subsidiaries
- Software companies based in Texas
- Technology companies established in 1996