Good-bye ProcessExplorer - your license got too strict

I used to rave to everybody about how good ProcessExplorer from Sysinternals was for technical troubleshooting. Oops, I guess I was too loud.

The new license terms state:

A commercial license is required to use the software in any way not covered above, including for example:

• Use of the software for technical support on customer computers

This license does appear in ProcessExplorer 10.05. The license is not yet in my other favourite tool (FileMon), but I assume it will get rolled out with the next release.

This may still allow users to download and install the product themselves, but even that seems to violate the spirit if not the letter of the license.

I was going to present at JavaOne with very strong emphasis on the tools from Sysinternals, but now I may have to rewrite that presentation.

I can understand that the company wants to drive the customers towards their commercial offerings, but it is still sad to suddenly be able to do less rather than more with the new release.

BlogicBlogger Over and Out