Microsoft Corp. succumbs to peer pressure and has decided to release the latest WMF (Windows Meta File) vulnerability. On the 5th of January, Microsoft released a patch due to the ever-growing public pressure; the patch is designed for computers running Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 from http://update.microsoft.com.

This latest development is quite a surprise to the tech community since Microsoft typically releases their patches on a Monthly cycle starting with the second Tuesday of each month. This has been known as "Black Tuesday" for most network administrators who have to spend a few hours updating and fixing their systems and making sure everything works.

Debby Fry Wilson, director of Microsoft's security response center, said that there was "very strong feedback from customers who wanted to have the update early. We decided the right thing to do was to put it out today." It all came together better than expected for Microsoft since they were able to finish testing sooner than expected.

This latest move might show Microsoft saving face when they decided to downplay the severity of the flaw itself. A lot of administrators who wanted to have a secure system went to Ilfak Guilfanov's Web site to download the non-Microsoft WMFFIX_HEXBLOG.EXE fix. Although this fix was fully functional, some professionals had advised against using it since it would modify their Windows environments when they deploy the patch. When they'd uninstall the patch by next Tuesday, it would leave two opportunities for something to go wrong.

We'll see if this latest push from end users will make Microsoft question their monthly patch cycle from now on. This isn't the first time they've had trouble with patching their software.