Today is Patch Tuesday, November 2013, and Microsoft is releasing 8 security updates, three of them are marked as Critical and the remaining five are marked as Important affecting Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, and previous versions of the operating system, including Microsoft Office. Additionally there is one mysterious update, which isn’t listed, and is meant improve performance and reliability in for Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1.
All the updates marked as Critical are meant to resolve Remove Code Execution in Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 8.1 (Windows RT 8.1) and Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 8 (Windows RT). The remaining three Windows updates are important security updates that deal with different vulnerabilities, including Denial of Service, in the operating system. The remaining two important updates are related to Microsoft Office.
For those users still in Windows 7 SP1, Vista, XP, and Windows Server, you will also get five updates: three critical and two important.
Officially Microsoft says there are 8 updates in total for this Patch Tuesday, but on my count there is a total of 9 updates. As Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 users will notice the KB2887595, which is a huge update (~200MB) that provide a collection of performance and reliability improvements that are designed to improve the operating system experience. More info here.
The updates are already out, but you can update manually by going to the Control Panel, clicking Windows Update, and then clicking Check of Update, or you can wait to the next restart and they will install automatically.
This Microsoft Patch Tuesday also brings firmware update for Surface, Surface 2, and Surface Pro. For more details check this previous article: Surface family gets new firmware update as part of November Patch Tuesday.
Source Microsoft
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].