14 DAY TRIAL // This month's Patch Tuesday rollout is taking place on May 13 and according to a new advisory rolled out by Microsoft today, users will be provided with eight different security updates for their apps.
As usual, the Redmond-based software giant hasn't provided any details on the bugs it found in order to keep users on the safe side, but it did mention that six of the updates are considered to be “important,” while the other two are rated as “critical.”
Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft SharePoint Server and Office Web Apps will all be fixed as part of Patch Tuesday, Microsoft said, but more information will however be revealed on Tuesday after the company releases the updates.
May 13 will also be the day when Microsoft will stop providing updates for Windows 8.1, as all users running this particular platform have no other choice than to migrate to Windows 8.1 Update. Starting with this Patch Tuesday, Windows 8.1 users will only see a single patch in Windows Update to move to 8.1 Update and only then get the rest of the fixes available for their platforms.
Microsoft says that making this update mandatory was the only choice because all future improvements made to modern Windows will be based on Windows 8.1 Update, so unless you deploy this new OS release, your computer won't be able to cope with future patches.
“The Windows 8.1 Update is a required update to keep Windows 8.1 devices current. It will need to be installed to receive new updates from Windows Update starting on May 13th. Customers who have Automatic Update turned on don’t need to be concerned because the update will be installed for them automatically prior to May 13th,” the software giant explained.
“For customers managing updates on their devices manually and haven’t installed the Windows 8.1 Update prior to May 13th, they will only see the option to install the Windows 8.1 Update in Windows Update. No new updates will be visible to them until they install the Windows 8.1 Update. For customers on metered networks, they will get the same experience until they install the Windows 8.1 Update,” the company continued.
Windows 8 users won't be affected by this change, but it remains to be seen what will actually happen to consumers who can't deploy the new 8.1 Update due to some installation errors experienced on their PCs. Microsoft has already provided some workarounds, but a number of users claim that in many cases, they make absolutely no difference.