A little Autopatcher background - Microsoft announced XP SP2 in August 2004 and have have released hundreds of security updates and hotfixes since then.
If you install Windows XP on a new computer, you either have to download numerous updates from Windows Update website or you could install the latest version of AutoPatcher XP which includes each and every fix released by MSFT.
The Autopatcher installer is maintained by Windows enthusiasts - it saved bandwidth for thousand of XP users and the software was even distributed with some popular Computer Magazines.
Today, Microsoft Legal called up the AutoPatcher team asking them to discontinue the project and remove the download links. Microsoft is concerned that malicious software could be redistributed with Microsoft Update via Autopatcher. Microsoft will only allow updates to be downloaded from its own servers.
It's strange that Microsoft legal team acted now though the project has been in existence for the past four years.
Now that AutoPatcher is history, Microsoft should work towards releasing the XP SP3 final package real soon else offline Windows XP users will have no way to keep their computer updated with recent Microsoft patches except slipstreaming with nLite.
Earlier, Microsoft had warned users against downloading the XP SP3 Preview package that surfaced on Google groups.