Mainsoft was founded in 1993, mainly to propose integration products between Windows and other systems.[2]
Mainsoft was one of the main providers for the MicrosoftWindows Interface Source Environment (WISE) program, a licensing program from Microsoft which allowed developers to recompile and run Windows-based applications on UNIX and Macintosh platforms.[3]
WISE software development kits (SDKs) were not directly provided by Microsoft. Instead Microsoft established partnerships to several software providers which in turn sold WISE SDKs to end-users.[4]
To be able to develop WISE SDKs, software providers needed to have access to Windows internals source code. In 2004, more than 30000 source files from Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 were leaked to the internet. It was later discovered that the source of the leak originated from Mainsoft.[9][10]
^"Windows Source Leak Traces Back to Mainsoft". 2004-02-13. Retrieved 2008-04-26. Mainsoft extended its WISE agreement with Microsoft in March 2000 to include access to the Windows 2000 source. Microsoft subsequently employed Mainsoft to port Windows Media Player 6.3 and Internet Explorer to Unix.
