Talking about starting 2007 on the wrong foot... Microsoft has had a change of plans concerning the Security Bulletins the Redmond Company is planning to release next week, on January 9, 2007. The software giant had initially revealed via the Microsoft Security Advanced Notification that it planned to release no less than eight Security Bulletins as a part of the company's monthly patch cycle.

The eight security bulletins were designed to address issues in Windows, Office and Visual Studio:

- Three Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical.
- One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Visual Studio. The highest Maximum Severity rating for this is Important.
- One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. The highest Maximum Severity rating for this is Important.
- Three Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Office. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical.

This was the initial list. Yesterday, January 5, 2007, Microsoft has quietly modified its plans. Without producing any explanation, the Redmond Company has pulled out a total of four security bulletins from the list of the first 2007 Patch Tuesday.

Microsoft has only informed that the development process of the other four remaining security bulletins will continue. As of yet, the Redmond Company has failed to indicate when it plans to release the security updates that have been discontinued. In this context, Microsoft will probably make them available as an out of band release later this month.

"I have updated the posting to let you know that we will only be releasing 4 security bulletins. We continue to plan to release the 4 remaining bulletins referenced above," revealed Mike Reavey, operations manager of the MSRC.

These are the remaining security updates that Microsoft will release on January 9, 2007:

- One Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for this is Critical. This update will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and the Enterprise Scan Tool. This update will require a restart.

- Three Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Office. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. These updates may require a restart.