Microsoft patches thirteen security holes

Five of them critical, one of them 17 years old

Virtual software monopoly Microsoft will patch a record 13 major security flaws in its operating systems and software next Tuesday, matching the record it set just a few short months ago.

The company - which has recently been plagued by high profile and very public breaches in its Internet Explorer browser software - announced that, of the 13 holes to be fixed, six were 'critical', seven 'moderate' and one 'important'.

Just about every flavour of the Redmond company's operating system from XP onwards, and including the latest flagship Windows 7 is affected by the critical flaws.

Microsoft Office in XP, 2003 and 2004 for Mac also have important flaws fixed in the regular update.

One of the bugs is 17 years old, and first appeared in Windows NT 3.1. Unfortunately it's been hanging around ever since and has made its way into every subsequent release, including Windows 7.