Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday is upon us and this time, Windows users are in store for a much larger batch of fixes than usual. A recent post on Technet highlights the fact that tomorrow's update will address 57 different security vulnerabilities that will require 12 individual updates to repair.
Updates this month will target a number of different applications including Windows itself, Windows Server, Exchange, Office, Internet Explorer and the .NET Framework. We are told that five of the 12 patches are classified as critical in nature. This means that they will fix vulnerabilities that could allow a hacker to execute malicious code on a user's computer.
Two of the critical patches are said to fix security holes in all version of Internet Explorer since version six. Translated - all current versions of Windows, including Windows 8 and Windows RT are currently at risk. If you haven't done so already, it might be a good idea to switch to a different web browser until you have the opportunity to patch IE.
Microsoft points out that another critical patch is aimed at Windows XP, Vista and Server 2003. A separate patch is only necessary for those still running XP while the final patch will keep those using Exchange a bit safer.
If you have automatic updates enabled, critical updates will be automatically installed for you tomorrow. The rest of the updates, only rated as important, will need to be installed manually. Unsurprisingly, the software giant recommends that users also pick up the important updates as they could help systems from being compromised.