Microsoft will break a previous record by addressing 34 security vulnerabilities with this coming week's Patch Tuesday. The Redmond-based firm will issue a total of 14 security bulletins, eight of which are marked critical.

According to a statement from the company on Thursday, the fixes address flaws in a number of Microsoft products, including the Windows operating system (OS), Office, the Internet Explorer web browser, SQL and Silverlight. (Source: computerworld.com)

Most Security Bulletins Ever

"This will be the most bulletins we have ever released in a month; we have released 13 bulletins on a couple of occasions," said Microsoft's Angela Gunn, security response and communications manager.

While this Patch Tuesday will feature the most security bulletins released by the firm to date, the total fix count is actually not a record -- just a tie. "However, in total CVE [common vulnerabilities and exposures] count, this release ties with June 2010, so there's no new record there," Gunn said.

Affected Software List a Long One

The list of Microsoft software affected by the patch batch is enormous. According to CNET News, it includes: Windows 7; Windows XP; Vista; Windows Server 2003 and 2008; Windows Server 2008 release 2; IE 6, 7 and 8; Office XP Service Pack 3; Office 2003 Service Pack 3; 2007 Microsoft Office System Service Pack 2; Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac; Office Word Viewer; Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint; 2007 File Formats Service Pack 2; Microsoft Works 9; and Silverlight 2 and 3. (Source: cnet.com)

Security researchers disturbed by Microsoft's decision to stop supporting Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) have used the opportunity to point out how dangerous it is for home and business users to continue using that version of the OS.

"Windows XP SP2 users do not have any patches supplied to them, even though the five critical vulnerabilities for XP SP3 most likely apply to their discontinued version of the OS as well," said Wolfgang Kandek, CTO for Qualys.

"Windows XP SP2 users should upgrade to SP3 as quickly as possible."