Get your Windows updated this week

Microsoft pushed out a record number of patches this week in its regular monthly updates, affecting all versions of Windows as well as Office.

For Windows, 17 patches will fix a whopping 64 holes. These include nine critical patches and eight important. Of the critical patches, five of them have the highest "exploitability index" rating of 1, meaning that the risk of attack is high and the impact of being pwned is also high. This month's update is a record-breaker in the number of holes fixes, beating last December's update of 17 patches that fixed 40 holes.

This update also fixes a number of critical issues with all versions of Office, and also includes two new software updates: the Rootkit Evasion Prevention tool and Office File Validation.

If you don't have your updates set to auto, then make sure you run the Microsoft Update program this week to get all these fixes, updates and patches. Further info on this month's updates is at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms11-apr.mspx

Have you considered Mac OSX?

Nick, I actually use a MacBook Pro and have bootcamp so that I can work in both OSX or XP, I just tend to use XP more for work as I have a lot of programs that I only have a windows license.

I am planning on getting a new MacBook Pro the next time I visit the USA, once I have that I will be running Parallels instead, so that my primary network is OSX :D

I just got a majority of those updates and took forever..

Luke you are in Panama right? Hows the computer buying there? Costly or only in spanish or??

Macs are a bit more expensive than in the USA, and are usually bottom-line models only. And you can forget about customizing it with a faster or bigger disk, more ram, etc...as the shops here don't stock those extras. Macs usually are English, unless you specifically order a Spanish version (keyboard, o/s, etc)

PCs are about the same price as in the USA, once again expect only basic models here. And unlike Macs, PCs are all Spanish, especially laptops.

are you shopping around for a new computer?