It's the second week of the month and that means it's Patch Tuesday time, the monthly delivery of fixes for Microsoft's quiver of software arrows. This month, they have targeted a bunch of issues rated as "critical".

Following the recent WannaCry ransomware outbreak, Microsoft issued patches to the new unsupported Windows XP in order to rectify the vulnerabilities that WnnaCry exploited. Today, they have gone further issuing some further security patches as part of this month't Update Tuesday releases.

After missing Patch Tuesday in February, Microsoft has managed to get the March edition out. With 18 separate security updates it packs in a lot of fixes for dozens of vulnerabilities.

Microsoft has released its monthly cumulative update for the month of June, issuing 16 patches bundles for 44 security vulnerabilities across a bunch of the company's software including the Windows operating system, Office, Internet Explorer Edge and Exchange Server. Five of the patch packages concerned vulnerabilities that were rated as "critical". Here are the details.

In the latest Microsoft Security Bulletin, the vendor has issued patches for 16 security bugs for its software of which eight are rated as critical. Some of them affect all supported Windows operating systems including Vista, Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. Among the critical security flaws found, a handful involved remote code execution which would allow hackers to take over vulnerable PCs. Here are the details.

A number of Microsoft Outlook users are experiencing crashes when they use the email desktop client after the vendor's regular security patches were rolled out for Windows on Tuesday. Here's what we know.

There are a lot of vague announcements and a myriad of conclusions from security experts and the media regarding recent Microsoft news about the upcoming release of Windows 10 and the introduction of Windows Update for Business. What's actually happening?

Microsoft's long term plan with Windows 10 is to kill off Patch Tuesday, but that hasn't happened yet. This week's round of updates includes 13 patches and 3 critical updates.

April Patch Tuesday is here, and this time around there are four critical updates (and another seven ) for your Windows administration pleasure.

That second Tuesday of the month rolls around quickly, doesn't it? This month's batch of Windows and Office patches includes 14 fixes, with a partial fix for the recently discovered FREAK vulnerability amongst them.

Another month skates by, and another pile of Patch Tuesday updates rolls out overnight from Microsoft. This time around, the pile of critical updates is just three downloads deep.

Amongst the eight Windows patches in this week's Patch Tuesday update is one touching on a service you may not have thought about for quite a while: Telnet.

On the second (US) Tuesday of each month, Microsoft issues its Patch Tuesday updates. In the past, it has provided advance notification of which products will be affected -- but now that's only going to be available to Premium customers.

After last month's gargantuan Patch Tuesday, the final update cycle of 2014 is a more sedate affair. Seven patches are vying for your attention, spread across Windows, Office and Exchange.

So this week's Patch Tuesday is particularly patch-heavy: there are 16 new patches in total from Microsoft, which is the highest number we've seen all year. But will you need them all?

What's more painful than a regular patch Tuesday? A patch Tuesday with vital updates from Microsoft, Oracle and Adobe.

Yes, it's almost the second Tuesday of the month and we're due another bunch of Microsoft patches. With just four updates scheduled this month, hopefully the experience won't be too painful.

So we know this week's Patch Tuesday update will include some "Update Tuesday" tweaks to Windows 8.1. But what else is on offer?

It's the second Tuesday of the month tomorrow, and that means Patch Tuesday. Come Wednesday Australian time, there will be a neat heap of essential security updates for Windows systems.