Thursday, in keeping with its usual schedule, Microsoft released its Security Bulletin Advanced Notification for February, previewing the security fixes it intends to release next Tuesday, February 14. Microsoft plans to release nine security bulletins this month; seven are for Windows and its components, and there are also patches for Microsoft’s Office, SharePoint, and Silverlight products. Four Windows patches have a maximum severity rating of Critical; the other three are rated Important. All supported versions of Windows are affected. The table below shows the breakdown of patches by Windows version and severity:
| Windows Version | Critical | Important | Moderate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows XP+SP3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| Windows Vista | 4 | 1 | — |
| Windows Server 2003 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Windows Server 2008 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Windows 7 | 4 | 1 | — |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
The patches for Office and SharePoint have an Important severity rating; the patch for Silverlight is rated Critical.
According to Microsoft, four of the Windows bulletins will require a system restart, and the other bulletins may require one, depending on your system’s configuration.
As always, this information is subject to change between now and the actual release of the bulletins next Tuesday. I will post a note here once the actual updates are available.
Posted by Rich 
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