Tech Corner

I wrote here last week about the security hole in Internet Explorer, or you might have read about it, with the recommendations of how to temporarily patch it, or to temporarily use another browser until it was fixed.  Well, Microsoft has now patched the problem, and if your system is set for Automatic Updates, you will be getting it sent to you.

"The majority of customers have automatic updates enabled and will not need to take any action because protections will be downloaded and installed automatically," Dustin Childs of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, the company's security group, said in a blog post. "If you're unsure if you have automatic updates, or you haven't enabled Automatic Update, now is the time."

In issuing the patch, Microsoft also decided to provide the fix for versions of Internet Explorer Explorer 6, 7, and 8 that require Windows XP which the company had recently stopped supporting after 12 years. 

"We have made the decision to issue a security update for Windows XP users," Childs said, noting that "Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft" and that Redmond "continue[s] to encourage customers to migrate to a modern operating system, such as Windows 7 or 8.1."