Microsoft issued just two updates today to fix at least three security flaws in its Windows and Microsoft Office products, a merciful respite following last month’s record-setting patch push. One of the patches issued today earned a critical rating, the company’s most serious.
The critical patch is mainly a concern for enterprises that are running Windows Server 2003 and 2008 server operating systems. The Office update fixes two vulnerabilities in Microsoft Powerpoint, and affects older versions of Office, including Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007 and 2004 for Mac (Office 2010 for Mac and Windows are not affected).
Updates are available through Windows Update or via Automatic Updates. As always, please leave a note in the comments if you experience any troubles during or after the installation of these patches.
I had five new updates today including one that “enables future updates” and “cannot be uninstalled” (I’m guessing it can be uninstalled).
I installed the updates this morning. After restarting, the system just hung on the light blue start up screen. I did a reboot holding in the start button for a few seconds and everything started up fine.
My auto update did not show any updates pending. Other than this, the updates installed by manual without a glitch.
actually I encountered problems booting this morning after the updates were installed last night.
I use windows 7 and it hung for minutes until I did shutdown the computer. I think it’s quite barefaced to treat windows users like minors that are not able to define, what updates they want to have installed and which not.
Most barefaced also is you will not get any helpful informations on what the updates will do to your systems and that it might be a problem to have them installed.
Well, you can define which Microsoft updates you want installed. Just turn off “Automatic Updates”, but realize that you’re going to have to manually visit the Windows Update website each month, and pick out the updates you want one by one. It’s generally not recommended to do this, because it’s easy to forget.
If you’re in a corporate environment, then you’re probably at the mercy of the net admins, who push the updates down to your machine as they best see fit.
Windows 7 has an easier option than completely turning off update capability; it can be set thru the control panel to automatically show update notifications (“Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them”). The update list is then available on the computer and users can select the ones they want.
While Mac users are affected, Microsoft dies NOT have a fix available. That is to come at some future date (not announced)
So in this case they’ve publicized the vulnerability BEFORE releasing a fix.
Way to go, Microsoft !! Don’t complain next time someone else does that to you.
I also noticed there were a few .NET and Win7 SP1 update issue fixes among these. Maybe MS is finally addressing the mess they have put my clients in.
We are all tired of doing their update beta testing for Redmond! My clients don’t have the luxury of a test lab to check every MS update.
You can ignore the non security updates, but you really can’t ignore the important ones.
“My clients don’t have the luxury of a test lab to check every MS update.”
Well, time to get them off the MS treadmill.
I wished I were a better saleman; perhaps you are?
I am using Win X.P SP3 and according to the published bulletin my O.S is not in the list of vulnerable systems. it feels good to be on the safer side.
That’s not saying too much as this month’s patches are for Windows SERVER and Office, NOT Windows client (ex. Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7). 😛
I used to think the opposite that the newer versions were more secure as they didn’t have as many patches as older stuff. But, that has proven false over time. Many newer versions have more functionality or added software (think all the extra stuff or lines of code in say Windows 7 versus Windows XP) which increases their attack surface and potential for flaws. Sure newer versions are supposed to be designed with better security in mind. But in the end, it’s all a wash. ALL software old and new has flaws and need patching. That’s just the nature of the beast. Regardless of what Operating System platform or software applications one chooses to use, it’s about a layered defense to keep malware at bay. 🙂
Oh, good grief. Scratch my post. I completely took Fred’s comment the wrong way. Should know better than to post so soon after getting up and not having enough coffee yet! 😉
I have downloaded it multiple times. On reboot, it shows as zero percent installed and hangs, then says the installation fails and takes me to the Win7 login screen.
I updated 4 Windows 7 systems, 3 of them (1 Ultimate, 2 Home Premium) hung up Norton LiveUpdate repeatedly after the update. Had to turn the systems off. Tried again after reboot: same problem. Had to remove Norton firewall and minder and reinstall to fix the problem. Webroot had update problems, but those went away after reboot. So it is not clear if it was a windows or Norton problem. My sister and friend both on Vista Home Premium had hung systems after the same updates. Could not do a remote session (failed to get remot5e control, but systems were visible) to fix those problems.
I hear you Andre!
For some of my clients, the problem is that some of the fixes have to be on board before installing SP1. So they had to restore back to before SP1 for Win7, and then things worked; but only for a few. All of them did a clean boot before their attempts.
Win7 has a lot of problems updating with the hotfixes that are already on the PC; it is just ridiculous, if you ask me!
So, how bad is the vulnerability that caused MS to release two updates on a Sunday?
What two updates on Sunday are you referring to? I see no reference anywhere about this. The only thing I’ve seen since patch Tuesday a week ago are a few e-mails from Microsoft about re-releasing some updates due to detection logic changes for Enterprise deployment tools (ex. Windows Server Update Services, Systems Management Server, or System Center Configuration Manager). The actual patch binaries have not been altered, so those who have patched already don’t need to do anything. These types of re-releases are not uncommon. 🙂
I’m trying to leave notes about my patch troubles Brian, but folks keep down rating me into oblivion. I’m sure they think I’m ignorant, but I learned a lot watching Microsoft techs working on my PC.
I’m telling you that there are primarily great problems with .NET and some of the OEMs that tried to update to SP1 for Win7! For my Vista x64 install, the greatest fix was the next version of .NET!
Maybe this is not a problem with the rest of the US, but where I live my work load went up 1000%! All of them, are DELL and HP brand new computers.