Microsoft Patch Tuesday, January 2014, includes Surface Pro 2 firmware and Windows fixes (update)

Microsoft Patch Tuesday - green

Today is Patch Tuesday, the first batch of Windows updates for 2014 and Microsoft is releasing several Important updates to address vulnerabilities in various Microsoft products. This time around don’t expect any security updates for Windows 8.1 and Windows RT as the software giant is mainly patching Windows 7, Windows XP, its Office suite, Dynamics, and Windows Server 2003.

Perhaps in this first Patch Tuesday of 2014, Windows XP will receive the most important update. The Microsoft Security Response Center reports: “The update provided in MS14-002 fully addresses the issue first described in Security Advisory 2914486. We have only seen this issue used in conjunction with a PDF exploit in targeted attacks and not on its own. This only impacts customers using Windows XP or Server 2003 as more recent Windows versions are not affected.”

Microsoft is also expected to release a new update for its Surface tablets, today, January 14, as recently users’ complaints that after installing previous Surface Pro 2 firmware, caused some issues including: sending the tablet to sleep mode and draining battery faster than expect in multiple instances, among different other problems.

The updates will roll out shortly and you’ll be able to 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.

Stay tune, I’ll be updating the article accordingly as the company releases more information.

Update: What happened to the Surface Pro 2 update for January? We’re expecting to have a new firmware to fix last December’s glitches, but as it turns out, Microsoft still working on it. The software giant says that it will release it as soon as possible, but not today.

Although, today Surface Pro 2 were left in the cold, Microsoft released firmware updates for Surface Pro using Windows 8.0 to fix the following issues:

  • Surface Type Cover 2 Firmware Update Device, version 1.0.279.0: These updates improve the experience of using a second generation Surface Cover on your first generation Surface Pro running Windows 8.0, including touchpad performance and overall product stability.
  • Surface Touch Cover 2 Firmware Update Device, version 1.0.280.0: These updates improve the experience of using a second generation Surface Cover on your first generation Surface Pro running Windows 8.0, including touchpad performance and overall product stability.

Update: Though Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1 don’t have any important security update in January’s Patch Tuesday, Microsoft did released an optional “update: rollup” for its latest operating system that includes performance and stability improvements such as memory leak fix, files or folders are removed unexpectedly when you perform a cut-and-paste operation on a Windows FTP client that is connected to an FTP site, Scheduled task in Windows restarts unexpectedly after computer restarts, and more. For more information visit Microsoft support (KB2911106).

Source Microsoft

About the author

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.