Patch Tuesday for November 2017

According to Microsoft’s announcement, the November updates include patches for Internet Explorer, Edge, Windows, Office, and .NET. As usual, you have to dig into the rather awkward Security Update Guide to find additional details.

My analysis of the SUG reveals that there are fifty-three bulletins, addressing fifty-four vulnerabilities across the usual range of products. Sixteen of the vulnerabilities are flagged Critical.

If you’re interested in performing your own analysis, I strongly suggest avoiding the cumbersome SUG interface. Instead, locate the almost hidden ‘Download’ link at the top right of the updates grid and click that to open the data in Excel. From there you can use Excel’s filtering tools to wrestle the update information into more manageable lists.

Opera 49 released

A new version of alternative web browser Opera sports new features that may be of interest to some users, but aren’t likely to excite much interest in most.

Opera’s developers have added a screen shot feature to the browser, apparently in response to similar features being added to other browsers recently. I still don’t understand the point, especially since the feature can’t be used outside the context of the browser. You’re better off using a screen capture tool that works in any context.

There’s also a new Virtual Reality player, something that looks cool but likely isn’t particularly useful for most people.

Opera 49 includes numerous other enhancements, but most seem cosmetic in nature. The full change log has all the details. Note that the log includes changes made to Opera 49 while it was still only available as a ‘developer’ version.