WinUtilities Professional Edition giveaway has been canceled – no more free updates
August 15, 2010 33
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For the past 6 months dotTech has been running a WinUtilities Professional Edition giveaway, allowing dotTechies to grab WinUtilities Professional Edition for free. Recently, because of a disagreement between dotTech and YL Computing (the developer of WinUtilities), YL Computing has canceled the WinUtilities Professional Edition giveaway and dotTechies will no longer receive free updates. If you have WinUtilities Professional Edition currently installed using dotTech’s registration information do not update the program or else it will revert to the trial version.
Furthermore, it seems like YL Computing has also canceled the giveaway with other sources like Softpedia, so you can’t grab it from there anymore either.
Update: I got a hold of WinUtilities Professional Edition 9.81 installer (the latest version that works with dotTech registration code); I uploaded it so dotTechies that want WinUtilities Professional Edition can use it (dotTech’s registration information works on it). Download it from http://dottech.org/downloads/WinUtilitiesPro_9.81_dotTech.org_Giveaway.exe. After installation, right-click on the system tray icon, go to “Settings…” and uncheck “Automatically check for updates”.
For those that feel the sting of no longer receiving free WinUtilities Professional Edition, dotTech has featured many system utilities freebies (Glary Utilities Pro [now expired], WinOptimizer 6, TuneUp Utilities 2008, jv16 PowerTools 2009 [v1.9.0.590], Advanced SystemCare Pro) that one can use and there is WinUtilities Free Edition that is always available for free. Plus, I am currently trying to get dotTechies some lucrative system utilities for free, so stay tuned.
I apologize for any inconvenience!
i am just curious as to what happened….
Hi Ashraf,
I have the free Pro edition 9.44 as from GAOTD installed. Whan running this version today it wants to “trick” me into installing the update to the 9.82 version.
As far as I understand I had better not accept this then?
Well… Seeing all the alternatives – some of which I also use, depending on what exact task I want to get performed ànd whether some tasks are better perforemed by dedicated tools (which in some cases do perform better) – I don’t consider it as a major loss!
Good thing to receive this warning, though! I guess YL Computing doesn’t provide this warning when one were updating inadvertedly?
Thanks!
Patrick.
PS: is there no real top techie who could blurr or remove this “in-program update messages” (or whatever they may be called)? Perhaps change the invitation-message to a warning-message (in red in stead of in green)? Or is there some setting in WinUtilities itself that takes care of that (not that I’ve ever seen one)?
Thanks again.
P.
It’s not my business what happened. Your ethics and morality are so well known as evidenced by prior actions I need no explanation. As mentioned, several other programs are available and I feel that this one will not be missed. Too bad there had to be bad feelings, but I’m sure we will all live to byte another day. :)
Patrick:
Go to settings (arrow down button on top left hand of screen) and unchecked the Automatically check for updates box. At least with it off it does not tempt me to click on update.
Too bad for YL, loss of many potential customers.
I would recommend jv16, I originally bought Regsupreme years ago for probably $10, lifetime license. Then Regsupreme went away and I was upgraded to full jv16 2009 for free. Just a few weeks ago, I was upgraded to jv16 PowerTools 2010, again for free. Macecraft is a good company, IMO, when they say lifetime license they mean it.
Wish I had seen this yesterday, before I updated from 9.8 to 9.82. Oh well, one fewer “system maintenance” package on my system.
after allowing winutilities to update my program yesterday, having it revert to the trial version with no explanation and then wasting my time uninstalling the program, cleaning out the registry and reinstalling thinking perhaps that the update needs to be installed fresh i now, in retrospect find this a positive. like me, i am sure there are many of you running several of these utility programs, trying to figure out which one gives you the best results. recently i found that i was only using winutilities to do a registry search so this unexpected policy change from yl computing is a plus. i now have one less redundant program on my computer.
i recently discovered a nice no-install program called reg scanner from nirsoft which works great for cleaning up the remaining remnants left in the registry from crappy uninstall programs.
thanks for the great site ashraf….harris
Thanks for the warning Ashraf. I have enjoyed WinUtilities, but as you say, you have many others available to us, and we know they are trustworthy. Thanks again for all your work. We truly appreciate your help.
Thanks for the warning Ashraf. I have enjoyed WinUtilities, but as you say, you have many others available to us, and we know they are trustworthy. Thanks again for all your work. I truly appreciate your help.
@cwc7268:
Hello again,
I “knew” I was missing something! Just disn’t see it. Lack of sleep results in that sort of blindness I guess.
Thanks! Fixed it now. No danger for wrong clicks anymore ;-)
Greetz,
Patrick
@Harlan:
Harlan:
I did the same thing but had saved 9.8 installation. I reinstalled it and used the GOTD id and key number and it worked okay. I then set it to not update auto anymore. It is a good program but as someone said above it is their loss not dotTech’s. Again THANK YOU Ashraf for everything you make available. For those of us on fixed incomes it is nice to enjoy various programs for free.
What disagreement is about? Don’t need to be specific.
Is it just the updates no longer working, or can I still register an older Pro version with the dotTech key?
In other words, will all the versions 9.8 and lower still register with the dotTech key?
@Everyone: I apologize but I really can’t give specifics on what happened. I may be ticked off at YL Computing, but revealing confidential details wouldn’t be very professional of me.
@Jyo: I believe older versions will still work. I don’t have an installer of the older versions tho… so dumb of me to not download it and upload it so you all can use.
@Ashraf: Hey Ashraf. I have a copy of 9.77 installer saved if you need.. just let me know if you want it or something. Be more than glad to send if able to help.
Zug
@Ashraf: Just go to brothersoft lol
for those that accidently updated winutils
[REMOVED]
key provided in readme
Edit by Ashraf: Thanks for the upload, but please download from http://dottech.org/downloads/WinUtilitiesPro_9.81_dotTech.org_Giveaway.exe – it is the latest version that is available for free.
Thanks for keeping us posted.
@Jyo: That is an old version.
@Everyone: I got a hold of WinUtilities Professional Edition 9.81 installer (the latest version that works with dotTech registration code); I uploaded it so dotTechies that want WinUtilities Professional Edition can use it (dotTech’s registration information works on it). Download it from http://dottech.org/downloads/WinUtilitiesPro_9.81_dotTech.org_Giveaway.exe. After installation, right-click on the system tray icon, go to “Settings…” and uncheck “Automatically check for updates”.
@zugshad: Thanks but I got hold of 9.81 from Softonic.
Well, Ashraf, we all know your word is good as gold, so these YL guys are ***out***.
I suspect that whatever mentality led them to sever their relationship with you indicates a mindset that would eventually cause me and them to exchange some harsh words as well. Who needs that kind of aggravation?
I was using WinUtilities Pro Edition from Softpedia.
On Saturday I allowed the program to update and it reverted to trial !!!
I`ve downloaded Ashraf`s installer right now, but realised that my Softpedia registration information will probably not work with it !!
As Softpedia is not so caring as Ashraf is – would somebody help and send me the dotTech’s registration information for use instead of Softpedia`s..
Email me direct at argiw6 AT gmail DOT com.
It is important to me because I already got used to this program and don`t want to learn some other again.
Thanks in advance
Thanks for informing us !
Considering that YL has (had) been giving away their product for the last 6 months via here and Softpedia, it probably isn’t unrealistic to expect this to end.
There really isn’t anything special about WinUtilities, anyway, that you can’t find in freeware, ala ccleaner, advanced windowscare, and the like.
I Am with you Ash,Keep them honest….Thanks for the heads up,….more then I can say for the majority of ALL of them
Mike