Microsoft Patch Tuesday: Ties Record For Most Bulletins (So Why Isn't The IE Hole Getting Fixed?)

Big patch day tomorrow. Get ready for a whopping 13 security bulletins, five of them labeled critical by Microsoft. No advance word on how many patches the bulletins will contain, but if history's any guidance we can figure an average of two per bulletin.Call it Super (or something) Tuesday: Microsoft is pumping out a record-tying number of security bulletins tomorrow, but will not be patching a recently disclosed IE vulnerability.

According to Microsoft, that vulnerability, which could disclose XP users' information hasn't yet been exploited in the wild. In a security advisory Microsoft detailed its investigation of the IE problem.

That still leaves a massive number of fixes coming tomorrow; according to the company's advance security bulletin, 10 of the 13 bulletins will require a system reboot. And the three that don't require it are labeled by Microsoft as "may require a restart."

The patches affect all Microsoft operating systems, including Vista and Window 7; Microsoft Office gets attention in two bulletins.

Time to get your various system's houses in order, plan your deployments and address the business impacts of the system shutdowns and restarts.

Gonna be a busy Tuesday.