WinPatrol™ Generation II

As an independent developer I’ve had the benefit of many personal relationships with folks who use WinPatrol.  I created a program to monitor changes because I wanted it but never expected WinPatrol to become so popular. The development, marketing, research, documentation, support and everything in between has been a challenge, even overwhelming at times.

It hasn’t been a secret that a long term family illness encouraged my search for someone who not only understood WinPatrol but would love and care for Scotty .  I had some tempting offers but they included a future without our pledge of a lifetime PLUS membership. Even worse, many respected companies thought WinPatrol would be an easy way to install unwanted toolbars and search hijackers. Most of you know how I feel about toolbars.

Ta-Da
I couldn’t be happier to introduce you to the founder of Ruiware, LLC and Scotty’s new best friend,  Bret Lowry. He’s younger with more energy but still has almost 30 years experience developing software.

Bret found his niche in security spending eight years as architect and program  lead for CounterSpy / Vipre Enterprise when it was published by Sunbelt Software.  As lead developer Bret helped Sunbelt reach the top of many Anti-Virus reviews and benchmark metrics. His experience and vision will launch WinPatrol into a whole new class of software.

Bret has already influenced the newest version of WinPatrol available later today and has been planning improvements  future versions.

“Version 32.0.2014.0 will be the first version of WinPatrol released by Ruiware (pronounced Rayware). My name is Bret Lowry, I am a founder of Ruiware and the developer who will be working on WinPatrol moving forward. I worked closely with Bill Pytlovany for this release and will continue working with him during the transition period. My commitment to WinPatrol customers is as follows:

One, your lifetime PLUS licenses are just that, lifetime licenses. That was the easiest topic in our negotiation and is written into the contract.

Two, WinPatrol will not have toolbars or other “add-ins” added to it or its installer. Installers that do that drive me crazy because I’m the guy people call to “fix” their computer after the installer completes its hijacking. I am not going to do that to my customers.

Three, I will be responsible for answering support questions, even more incentive to play nicely and stand-by item two above. And

Four, I use WinPatrol myself and therefore am committed to the continued improvement of WinPatrol. I am honored to have earned Bill’s trust and confidence in his allowing me to purchase WinPatrol. Bill has run WinPatrol with integrity since its inception, as a founder of Ruiware (along with my wife Phoebe), I promise we will carry on that tradition.”

While I’ve gotten to know Bret this year, I had a long relationship with Sunbelt and their popular CEO Alex Eckelberry. I wrote to Alex  this morning and he had plenty to say including… “This is also a guy who really takes the customer needs to heart.  He listens, he learns and he executes based on customer feedback.  WinPatrol will only blossom under his leadership.”

Alex Eckelberry and friends
at CNet’s Anti-Spyware Workshop
May 3rd 2005

Over the next three months I’ll be sharing all my WinPatrol performance tricks while Bret shares his vision of an improved interface and more powerful protection. I’m confident any current fans of WinPatrol will be pleased with the results.