Paul Ducklin of security company Sophos says that this Patch Tuesday is particularly important for Internet Explorer users because absolutely all versions of the browsers that are still on the market right now are affected by this issue.
“Things are fairly straightforward this month, with six bulletins, two of which are critical patches dealing with remote code execution holes,” Ducklin explains.
“Internet Explorer (IE) users take note that this month’s IE fix, Bulletin One, covers all supported versions of IE from 6 to 11; patches against remote code execution; is rated Critical; and requires a reboot. As usual, Server Core installs aren’t affected by the Internet Explorer Bulletin, because Server Core can’t run IE.”
25 percent of the desktop computers worldwide are still use Windows XP
Microsoft says that shutting down Windows XP support was the only option because it has already provided patches for this operating system more than for any other product currently on the market.
“We support our older operating systems much longer than most other businesses in this industry, but we can’t keep supporting old operating systems and still move forward creating new and better products,” Microsoft says.
“We’ve been supporting Windows XP for the past 12 years—that’s longer than we’ve supported any other operating system in our history and already two years longer than the standard ten years of support we normally provide. It’s time for us to look ahead so we can create better products and services for you and all our customers.”
All patches that will be released tomorrow will be shipped via Windows Update, so just make sure that your PC is connected to the Internet to get them.