It’s another Patch Day, and this month from Microsoft we’ve got thirty-two update bulletins and associated patches. Twenty-one of the bulletins are flagged as having Critical severity. One hundred and twenty-four security vulnerabilities are addressed, affecting Internet Explorer 9 and 11, Adobe Flash embedded in Microsoft browsers, Office applications, Edge (both the original version and the new version based on the Chromium engine), Sharepoint, Visual Studio, Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, and Windows Defender, the anti-malware program included with Windows 10.

You can find all the relevant details by perusing Microsoft’s Security Update Guide.

Although Microsoft produced Windows 7 updates this month, you won’t be able to obtain them through Windows Update unless you’ve subscribed to Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. Still, you should check Windows Update because occasionally Microsoft makes new Windows 7 updates available to everyone.

Windows 8.1 is still getting updates, and that will continue until January 10, 2023. Windows Update is still the easiest way to check for and install updates for Windows 8.1.

As usual, Windows 10 computers will be force-fed these updates over the next few days. You can delay the inevitable for as much as a year for feature updates (changes other than bug fixes), or a month for bug fixes, but eventually they’ll be installed whether you want them or not. Which still seems crazy, given how many problems Windows 10 updates have caused.