MS Pushing Fix For Patch Woes

Microsoft on Tuesday plans to push out a fix to repair problems caused by last week’s emergency cursor flaw patch. The fix will be delivered as a “high priority” update alongside Microsoft’s regular security updates, Christopher Budd, a Microsoft security staffer wrote on a corporate blog on Friday.

Microsoft has identified three additional applications that conflict with last week’s “critical” MS07-017 security update. Originally the company listed only the Realtek HD Audio Control Panel as software that would not function and cause error messages to appear. CD-Tag, ElsterFormular and TUGZip have been added to that list. “While the impact of these issues is clearly not widespread, it is affecting some of our customers,” Budd wrote.

For example, in Germany the issue with ElsterFormular is causing headaches because companies use it to file their taxes, according to the Elster Web site. Microsoft broke with its monthly patch cycle to repair a bug in the way Windows handles animated cursors. Cybercrooks had been using the hole to attack Windows PCs. Microsoft knew about conflicts with Realtek’s audio software before releasing the fix and published a support article with the security bulletin.

Microsoft’s Automatic Updates, the Windows feature that automatically downloads and installs fixes, will install the fix only on PCs that run conflicting applications, Budd wrote. The Windows Update and Microsoft Update Web sites will also offer it only if conflicting software is found on a PC, he wrote.

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