IE security flaw fixed, even for XP

[colonel_mortis]

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2964358 (and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27249695 ), although I have written it up myself
Microsoft has released an update for IE today which fixes the major security flaw discovered earlier in the week. It is update KB2964358 and is "Important" (clearly very important because it has not been released on a Tuesday). The update applies to IE 6 through 11, and is supported on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 upwards.

When XP support was discontinued, there was a lot of discussion as to whether this would happen. The answer is clearly yes, which is a good thing for all of those IE users, but it does appear to show that Microsoft will be forced to commit to supporting IE6-8 and XP for general consumers for a while to come, albeit only the critical vulnerabilities.

[flibberdipper]

Vista... You're gonna get some more updates.

[colonel_mortis]

Vista... You're gonna get some more updates.

Well Vista's extended support ends in April 2017, so I think it has a few updates to go yet (Win7 ends in January 2020). I doubt they will extend support for Vista, or give it any extra updates than XP though based on the usage numbers.

[LAwLz]

Oh that's good to hear.

Microsoft did the right thing for once. The vulnerability wasn't in Windows itself so I thought it was stupid to not release the patch for Windows XP machines.

[flibberdipper]

Well Vista's extended support ends in April 2017, so I think it has a few updates to go yet (Win7 ends in January 2020). I doubt they will extend support for Vista, or give it any extra updates than XP though based on the usage numbers.

I know.

[Poohy14]

really needed this update since IE is the only browser that works with my school work. Now I just need to download since I have an Exam tomorrow and other browsers will now show up the Exam

[Fetzie]

Oh that's good to hear.

Microsoft did the right thing for once. The vulnerability wasn't in Windows itself so I thought it was stupid to not release the patch for Windows XP machines.

 

As the problem was with Internet Explorer and not with Windows XP, I wonder how hard it would have been to make the fix incompatible with Window XP. It was probably much less work to just issue a general patch for IE instead of messing around making it not work with XP.

[colonel_mortis]

As the problem was with Internet Explorer and not with Windows XP, I wonder how hard it would have been to make the fix incompatible with Window XP. It was probably much less work to just issue a general patch for IE instead of messing around making it not work with XP.

Yeah, but they discontinued IE 8 support at the same time as XP, and IE8 is the highest you can get on windows.

[mgsstar]

Guess that they will continue fixing major flaws in XP as most governments and bank machines use it I think.

[LAwLz]

Guess that they will continue fixing major flaws in XP as most governments and bank machines use it I think.

Windows XP for embedded systems (like ATMs) will get support to 2019*.

 

*There are several versions of XP for embedded systems and some versions will get support to 2019.