'Major' Critical Updates released from Microsoft: July, 2004

Over the last 2 weeks, Microsoft has issued a number of patches related to exploits recently discovered in Internet Explorer.

Today, I received 2 additional notifications: one of them listed as critical and, if not applied immediately, may allow "remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a malicious website or JOB file." (Source: cve.mitre.org)

Yikes!

This section of the Gazette is normally dedicated to answering questions I receive from Readers between the time that newsletters are sent out; however, this time, I feel it is imperative to inform Readers of the importance of protecting their systems against these recently discovered and potentially compromising threats.

If you do have the Automatic Updates enabled, please visit the Windows Update Web Site and download any critical updates that are available for your machine. You will need to use Internet Explorer to download these updates (any other web browser is not compatible with the Windows Update web site).

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Side note: Automatic Updates are only compatible with Windows ME, 2000, and XP. Those users who still have Windows 98, 98 Second Sedition (SE), and NT4.0 can only use automated notifications, but must manually download updates as they become available.

How to enable Automatic Updates (Windows ME, 2000, and XP)

To enable Automatic Updates, click Start -> Settings -> Control Panel, select (or double-click) System. Next, click the Automatic Updates tab, and then click to select the "Keep my computer up to date" option. Finally, choose "Automatically download the updates, and install them on the schedule that I specify."

Once Automatic Updates are enabled, you can select the day and time for scheduled updates to occur. Remember, the computer must be on for the automatic updates to work!