Windows 7 will need instant patch

What’s the first thing you are going to do with your new Windows 7 machine? The correct answer is to patch it immediately.

The new system is affected by four of 13 security updates which will be contained in next week’s Patch Tuesday download. That includes one “critical” problem in Internet Explorer 8 plus three issues within Windows 7 itself ranked “important”. Those running previous editions of Windows 7 such as the release candidate will be able to patch the software on Tuesday rather than having to wait until the system’s official debut on Oct. 22.

The patches are part of what appears to be the biggest Patch Tuesday package ever. In total there are 13 updates fixing 34 different problems. Of those, eight updates deal with critical issues. As one wag at Slashdot notes, you can tell it’s likely to be a bad day when you release 13 updates on the 13th of the month.

Normally at this stage, we’d be detailing which applications and which systems are affected. Frankly this time round, it’s probably safe to assume everyone running Windows should strongly consider a manual update if they don’t normally have Automatic Updates switched on.

So packed is this month’s update, Microsoft’s Jerry Bryant warned IT administrators that they should carefully plan the order they apply the patches across company networks, particularly given the need to restart machines after many updates. Microsoft will be publishing a video next Tuesday explaining the updates in more detail.

The good news is that the updates will fix two security flaws which were noted in previous Microsoft updates but did not have a fix at the time. That’s always a controversial strategy as it increases the risk of hackers targeting the problem.

The flaws involve a Microsoft-produced server system used by around a third of websites and the Sever Message Block system which is used for filesharing across networks in Windows.

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• Microsoft makes tenuous ‘critical-free’ claim for Patch Tuesday
• IE7 and Windows Mail in Vista to receive ‘critical’ fixes on Patch Tuesday
• Microsoft races to patch IE6 and IE7
• Patch Tuesday too late for many bugs
• Patch Tuesday looking quiet this month