Microsoft to miss 'Patch Tuesday' again

In October 2003, Microsoft decided to release software fixes and updates on the second Tuesday of each month to make updating and resetting machines easier for administrators. Since then, it has only broken from its schedule on a handful of occasions to plug critical vulnerabilities.

A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet Australia  there will be "a couple of updates next week but none are security related. None are rated higher than 'important' and nothing will require a reboot".

In March, Microsoft also took a monthly patch hiatus, which is a sign that the company's Trustworthy Computing Initiative is working, the spokesperson said.

Late last year, director of Microsoft product security George Stathakopoulos said the company would like to eventually extend its patching cycle from once a month to once every six month - once it was confident that its customers would remain safe between updates.