Toolkit

Story: Unpicking Microsoft's patchwork

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Don't forget Office Update, too. The Windows Update service only provides patches for Windows and Internet Explorer / Outlook Express / Windows Media Player. It does NOT cover security patches for Microsoft Office suite. The Automatic Update tool (linked in previous comment) doesn't provide this. So, you have to point your browser (Internet Explorer) to: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com
This is really not too important unless you have business software installed - such as a work laptop, or for a home business PC (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Access). BE PREPARED: The MS Office patches require you have the MS Office CD ready during patch installation.
Non-Microsoft software needs patching, too. You can either go to the software vendor's web site, or to a centralized vulnerability database (searchable by vendor and product):
http://icat.nist.gov/icat.cfm

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