Microsoft and Adobe patches - are you up-to-date?

[GomJabbar]

Yesterday was "patch Tuesday" for Microsoft (second Tuesday of every month). I spent all last evening applying patches to Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 RC1.

I skipped Microsoft Office Update last month (I forgot). I found there were quite a few updates for Microsoft Office. I also discovered that now you need to use Microsoft Update (not to be confused with Windows Update) to update Microsoft Office. Office Update no longer works for XP.

In addition, I found out that Adobe Reader has a 40 MB patch that came out yesterday. For more info, see following article: Adobe sneaks out mega security patch

I wasn't up-to-date with Java on all my Windows Installations. Java is up to version 6, update 16. Check to see if you are up to date with the following link:
http://java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml

The latest Adobe Flash and Adobe Shockwave players have been updated in the not too distant past. Adobe Flash is at version 10.0.32.18. Adobe Shockwave player is at version 11.5.1.601. Check your installed versions with the following link:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/

[Marin85]

Yesterday was "patch Tuesday" for Microsoft (second Tuesday of every month).

And I was wondering why on some days windows update delivers bulks of patches for Windows and Office and on other days there is not a single update. I have my windows update set to "never check for updates" because I prefer to manually search for updates and decide which ones to install. By a chance I did that yesterday for both Windows 7 x86 and Windows 7 x64 and noticed the large amount of updates. I use the 64bit edition only for testing purposes, particularly for applications with 'native' x64 support, including Office 2010 (technical preview) x64. I noticed that most of the updates for Office 2007 were also applicable to Office 2010 x64. As for Adobe, Adobe Reader (Pro) updated to v9.2.
Apropos windows update, anyone noticed that it is not possible to permanently hide Microsoft Silverlight and Windows Live Essentials updates? It´s actually almost annoying to see them every time I run windows update even though I don´t need them at all. Even forced to extend the browser choice in Windows 7, there will be other paths for the microsofication.

[ArtShapiro]

anyone noticed that it is not possible to hide Microsoft Silverlight and Windows Live Essentials updates?

You can hide them - unfortunately, something (and I'd love to know what) eventually unhides them again. Even by M$ standards, I agree with you that this is highly annoying to one who has no intention of using either product.

At least these updates downloaded and installed quicker than I feared Even on my older T20 and T23 machines, we're talking maybe a half hour. Two updates failed to install on the T20, including the Malicious Software Tool, but I'll try again tonight. I had no problems on the T23, the T60p, the T61, and the X61, nor my Dell laptop nor the two desktop machines.

No doubt the Adobe patch will try to add Adobe Updater into the startup menu, necessitating MSCONFIG or the like to get it out.

Art

[Marin85]

You can hide them - unfortunately, something (and I'd love to know what) eventually unhides them again.

Same to me (I edited my previous post for clarity.) Upon next run of windows update they appear again. However, you can get rid of them by unchecking the box *Give me updates for M$ products and check for new optional M$ software when I update windows* under windows update settings. The catch is, if this option is disabled you won´t receive any updates for Office either. Also, the option disappears after having unchecked that box! The only way to restore it is to run Office Update from within M$ Office Options, which, however, won´t work if you are using a different default browser than IE... But if you happen - say by chance - to use IE as default browser, it will be your lucky day, the option will be restored together with some additional offerings in windows update...

No doubt the Adobe patch will try to add Adobe Updater into the startup menu, necessitating MSCONFIG or the like to get it out.

In my case, it was called 'Adobe Reader and Acrobat Manager'... BTW, that´s the new fashion way of giving the user the impression how fast some program starts, by loading it silently upon windows startup. Sometimes I ask myself why just don´t throw everything in the startup folder...