Thursday, in keeping with its usual schedule, Microsoft released its Security Bulletin Advanced Notification for August, previewing the security fixes it intends to release next Tuesday, August 14. Microsoft plans to release nine security bulletins this month. Five are for Windows and its components; three of these have a maximum severity rating of Critical, and the other two 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 | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows XP+SP3 | 3 | 2 | — | — |
| Windows Vista | 1 | 3 | — | — |
| Windows Server 2003 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Windows Server 2008 | — | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Windows 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | — |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 | — | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Windows Server Core | — | 1 | 1 | — |
There are also three bulletins that affect Microsoft Office. One of these, which is rated Critical, also applies to server software components, including SQL Server. as well as to Visual FoxPro and Visual Basic. The other two Office bulletins are rated Important. Finally, there is one bulletin, rated Critical, for Microsoft Exchange Server.
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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