As if there wasn’t enough going on, it’s already time to patch your Windows computers again.

Of course at this point, given that Windows 7 is effectively no longer getting patches, and Windows 10 updates itself whether you want it to or not, we’re really just talking about Windows 8.1. Market share for Windows 8.x was never high, and it’s now below 5% overall. Oh well.

Somewhat confusingly, Microsoft continues to produce patches for Windows 7, and documents them along with all the others in the Security Update Guide. But if you look at the requirements for these Windows 7 updates, you’ll see that they can’t be installed unless you’ve already paid for and installed the Extended Security Updates (ESU) Licensing Preparation Package. Which most regular folks can’t afford.

This month we don’t have any interesting updates from Adobe, but there’s the usual pile from Microsoft. Analysis of the Security Update Guide reveals that a total of one hundred and fourteen security vulnerabilities are addressed in this month’s patches. The usual lineup of software products are affected, including Windows, Internet Explorer 9 and 11, Edge, Office, and Windows Defender. There are thirty-eight security bulletins in all, nineteen of which are flagged as Critical.

By now I’m sure you know the drill: find Windows Update in the Control Panel and check for updates. Whether you cross your fingers or not is entirely up to you. Windows 10 users need to keep their fingers crossed at all times I guess.

Update 2020Apr15: April’s Microsoft updates include fixes for those actively-exploited Adobe Type Library vulnerabilities recently reported.