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NEWS FROM THE LAB - Thursday, April 13, 2006
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Forget about Windows update Posted by Mikko @ 12:43 GMT

Two days ago, we recommended that you get the latest Microsoft patches and to visit www.windowsupdate.com.

msupdBut nowadays it really makes more sense to recommend Microsoft Update instead of Windows Update. Microsoft Update does everything Windows Update does plus, in addition to patching the operating system, it also patches other common Microsoft software. This includes patching software like Word, Excel, SQL Server etc. In fact, many people probably thought Windows Update did this already!

Patching Word is quite important - we're regularly seeing targeted attacks made by e-mailing booby-trapped DOC files to companies. Word isn't often patched as well as Windows itself is, and DOCs go through gateway filters much more easily than EXEs do.

The URL for Microsoft Update is - get this: http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/

Makes you wonder why they aren't using www.microsoftupdate.com for this - they do own the domain.

Edited to add: Turns out not all versions of Microsoft Office are supported by Microsoft Update. If you are running Office 2000, you still need to visit Office Update.