There’s a small but important change coming to the way Microsoft sends out updates to Office.
Microsoft has two types of updates – security updates (fixes for the never ending list of gaps that hackers might use) and non-security updates (aka ‘bug fixes’).
Until now, both types of updates have been sent out on ‘Patch Tuesday’, the second Tuesday of each month.
Microsoft used to release security updates as soon as possible but that led to a rolling press narrative about the hacking potential of Office. So Redmond decided it was better for them to limit the publicity damage by dumping all the security fixes once a month.
Now, the non-security / bug fixes will be released on the first Tuesday of each month – starting 5th April 2016.
Security patches will follow a week later on the second Tuesday. This includes all patches designated ‘Critical’ or ‘Security’.
Microsoft hasn’t explained why they are doing this. Maybe they’ve forgotten why the ‘Patch Tuesday’ dump was arranged in the first place?
