14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft and its users will “celebrate” Patch Tuesday next week, so today the company has revealed the number of updates expected to be released as part of this rollout, along with the name of the software solutions to be targeted by these improvements.
The upcoming Patch Tuesday cycle is more or less a “one-app show” as Windows gets the majority of improvements, with all versions that are still supported to receive more or less important security fixes.
Five of the of 16 security updates that will be released next week are rated as critical and at least four will require a restart, so system administrators must prepare to save the current state of their computers before deploying the fixes.
In addition to Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, and .NET Framework are also getting security updates next week, so make sure that you keep an eye on the rollout on Tuesday to get the patches as soon as they're released.
Windows 10 to also get patched
All Windows versions will receive security fixes next week, including the Windows 10 Technical Preview that has already been downloaded by 1 million Windows Insider Program members who registered with their accounts in order to give the upcoming operating system a try.
A total of four updates will be shipped to Windows 10 machines, all via Windows Update, and reboots will be required, but that shouldn't be a problem since this particular OS version is specifically designed for testing purposes.
As Wolfgang Kanded, CTO of Qualys, notes, the upcoming Patch Tuesday will bring quite a lot of work for IT admins, so some efforts in advance of the release are required.
“A big release like this month's covers all versions of the Windows operating system, both for servers and workstations, the .NET stack, Microsoft Office, Sharepoint and Exchange. Plenty of work for IT admins on all levels, server, desktop and applications, but the focus should be on the top five,” he says.
Internet Explorer to get critical patch as well
All versions of Microsoft's in-house browser will get patched next week, starting with Internet Explorer 6 on Windows Server 2003 and ending with Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 8.1.
Kandek says that this will be the highest priority bulletin because of the risks caused by browser vulnerabilities, so make sure that you deploy this one as soon as possible, especially if you use Internet Explorer to browse the web.
All updates will be shipped via Windows Update, as is the case every month, so an Internet connection should be all you need to get them. Hopefully, no botched updates will be shipped this time.