This month's Patch Tuesday will see Microsoft roll out seven fresh updates - five rated 'Critical' and two 'Important' - which are set to address 11 vulnerabilities. These upcoming patches target bugs found in Office suites (2003, 2007 and 2010) and Office Web Apps, in Microsoft Exchange Server, and in Windows operating systems (Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, RT, Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2012).

A bit more info about the updates can be found in the advanced notification published here.

Although pre-launch drivers of the GeForce GTX 680 let the GPU run in PCI-Express Gen 3.0 mode on Intel's Sandy Bridge-E HEDT (X79) platforms, the release drivers limited the GPU to PCI-Express Gen 2.0 on the platform. The issue carried on with GeForce GTX 670, and other graphics cards with "Kepler" family of GPUs. NVIDIA cited reasons such as the platform not being PCI-Expres Gen 3.0 "certified" although it supports the 8 GT/s mode. The company assured users that it was working on getting its hardware to work on the Sandy Bridge-E HEDT platform in Gen 3.0 mode, and until it's absolutely certain about reliability, it is forcing PCI-Express Gen 2.0 mode.

NVIDIA released a patch that enables PCI-Express Gen 3.0 mode on Intel Sandy Bridge-E HEDT (X79) platforms, which lets graphics cards based on GeForce Kepler GPUs, such as GeForce GTX 680, GTX 670, etc., take advantage of 8 GT/s per lane system interface bandwidth. The mode could come particularly handy for graphics cards that are installed on electrical PCI-Express 3.0 x8 slots, as they could end up with bandwidth comparable to that of PCI-Express 2.0 x16. The patch should be installed along with the latest stable drivers. To enable the patch, run the executable and reboot the system. To undo the patch later, run the same executable with "-revert" argument in Command Prompt. Use only if stability is not absolutely paramount, or if the hardware is not operating in a mission-critical environment.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Kepler PCIe 3.0 mode-enabling patch for Sandy Bridge-E systems

Microsoft has today announced its plans for this month's security bulletin release and they include seven fresh updates (three rated 'Critical' and four 'Important') which are set to resolve no less than 23 vulnerabilities which could lead to remote code execution and information disclosure.

The seven patches will be releases this coming Tuesday, May 8th, at 10 a.m. PDT (5 p.m. GMT).

Microsoft has today announced that next week, on this month's 'Patch Tuesday' it will be releasing 6 security bulletins - four rated 'Critical' and two 'Important' - that will tackle 11 vulnerabilities. The issues set to be resolved affect Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Forefront UAG, and .NET Framework, and could lead to remote code execution and information disclosure.

The six patches are scheduled to go live on April 10 at 10 a.m. PDT (5 p.m. GMT). As always, Microsoft recommends that users update as quickly as possible.

Another Patch Tuesday is closing in fast and it's going to bring us six fresh updates from Microsoft. According to the Redmond-based company, the incoming patches - one rated 'Critical', four 'Important' and one 'Moderate', will resolve seven vulnerabilities that could lead to remote code execution or denial of service attacks.

The list of software targeted by Tuesday's patches includes Microsoft Windows, Visual Studio, and Expression Design. The updates will become available on March 13 at about 10:00 am PDT (5:00 pm GMT).

February's Patch Tuesday is closing in fast and, according to Microsoft, it's going to see the arrival of no less than nine updates - four rated 'Critical' and nine 'Important', that will crush 21 vulnerabilities.

The incoming patches tackle bugs that could lead to remote code execution and privilege elevation. As (almost) always, Microsoft didn't go into specifics but it did say the vulnerabilities affect Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, and .NET/Silverlight. All the updates will be made available on Valentine's Day (February 14th) at about 10 am PST (6 pm GMT).

Very quietly Microsoft has released two new patches available for the Bulldozer platform. According to the AMD blog these patches seem to offer little more then a 10% boost but the do improve over all performance. This is what Adam Kozak a product marketing manager at AMD had to say,

"Some of you may remember that AMD FX processors use a unique dual-core module architecture codenamed "Bulldozer", which current versions of Windows 7 were not specifically architected to utilize. In essence, for those with an AMD FX-8150 Processor, for example, Windows 7 sees the eight available cores and randomly assigns threads to them.

In initial testing of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, we've seen performance improvements of up to 10% in some applications, when compared to Windows 7. This is because the system correctly recognizes the AMD FX processor architecture and cores. Thanks to close collaboration between Microsoft and AMD, Microsoft recently completed back-porting some of the Windows 8 scheduler code for AMD FX processors into a hotfix for Windows 7."

To the surprise of many, last week, Microsoft rolled out a patch (KB2592546) for Windows that it claimed would improve performance of systems running AMD processors based on the "Bulldozer" architecture. The patch works by making the OS aware of the way Bulldozer cores are structured, so it could effectively make use of the parallelism at its disposal. Sadly, a couple of days later, it pulled that patch. Meanwhile, SweClockers got enough time to do a "before and after" performance test of the AMD FX-8150 processor, using this patch.

The results of SweClockers' tests are tabled below. "tidigare" is before, "nytt" is after, and "skillnad" is change. The reviewer put the chip through a wide range of tests, including synthetic CPU-intensive tests (both single and multi-threaded), and real-world gaming performance tests. The results are less than impressive. Perhaps, that's why the patch was redacted.

Tomorrow, Tuesday aka December 13th Microsoft is set to let loose no less than 14 updates which are supposed to resolve 20 vulnerabilities affecting products like Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Publisher, and Windows Media Player.

Three out of the 14 patches are rated 'Critical' and target bugs that could lead to remote code execution, while the other 11 are rated 'Important' and are set to plug in holes that can result in remote code execution and (unwanted) privilege elevation. As always, Microsoft isn't giving out specifics on the vulnerabilities that will be patched so we'll have to wait for tomorrow to get the full scoop. And to update of course.

EVGA made public its 25th release of the EVGA SLI Enhancement (version 02.25.10), a software patch that adds SLI profiles to NVIDIA's GeForce display drivers. SLI profiles are application-specific bits of software that optimise it to make use of multiple NVIDIA GPUs. The new release is based on NVIDIA GeForce 196.21 driver, and adds SLI optimisations for the following games:

• Supreme Commander 2 Demo
• Aliens vs. Predator, in all DirectX Modes
• Mass Effect 2
• Zombie Driver

Registered EVGA users (registration is free) can get the SLI Enhancement patch from here.

EVGA finished its twentieth release of the EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch, a software that adds to the GeForce system drivers' SLI profiles specific to applications. These SLI profiles help applications take advantage of multiple GeForce graphics cards in SLI, or dual-GPU GeForce accelerators such as the GeForce 9800 GX2 and GeForce GTX 295. Version 20 (01.15.10) adds SLI profiles to Dark Void, Serious Sam HD, and Avatar (Demo). This patch is based on GeForce drivers 195.81. The latest version of GeForce drivers from NVIDIA bring SLI profiles to the latter two games. Registered EVGA users can download the software from here.

EVGA released its 16th iteration of the SLI Enhancement Patch, a piece of software that adds SLI profiles of usually new games to the NVIDIA GeForce driver. SLI profiles are application-specific bits of software that let the application take advantage of two or more NVIDIA GPUs in SLI, or on dual-GPU cards. v16 (08.25.09) is based on GeForce 190.62 drivers, and enables SLI support for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Demo, apart from the numerous new game titles the driver brings in support for, including Wolfenstein Multiplayer, Allods: Online, Battlefield 1943, BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams, Cities XL, Death to Spies: Moment of Truth, Empire: Time of Troubles, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Mini Ninjas, Risen, Saboteur, Star Wars Clone Wars: Republic Heroes, and Tales of Monkey Island. Registered EVGA users (registration is free) can download the software from here.

Despite NVIDIA now releasing their own SLI patches, EVGA have still continued to release theirs. Version 14 is based on NVIDIA's 190.38 Drivers.

New SLI profiles from EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch:

• Enables SLI support for Section 8
• Enables SLI support for Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
• Enables SLI support for Rise of Flight
• Enables SLI support for FUEL
• Enables SLI support for Prototype digital version
• Enables SLI support for Merchants of Brooklyn

Maybe annoyed by EVGA, NVIDIA today released their own SLI profile patch, which primary objective is to accelerate a number of games when ran on systems with multiple NVIDIA video cards. Version one of the NVIDIA SLI profile patch should be used with version 186.18 display driver. It adds support for Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery) and ARMA II. The patch works under Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA SLI Profile Patch 1

EVGA published the 13th release of its SLI Enhancement Patch. The patch works in conjunction with NVIDIA's drivers, and expands its SLI profiles for games. Based on GeForce drivers 186.18 WHQL, EVGA SLI Enhancement Patch v13 adds SLI support for the games ArmA 2 and Merchants of Brooklyn, along with the new SLI profiles GeForce 186.18 brings for the games Dark Sector, Trine, Prototype, Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Free Realms, Wolfenstein, Order of War, Disciples 3, and Bigworld. Registered EVGA users (registration is free) can download the software from here.

EVGA published the 11th version of its SLI Enhancement Patch. Version 11 (05.15.09) is based on NVIDIA GeForce drivers 185.85, and enables SLI support for Zeno Clash and Merchants of Brooklyn, beyond the new additions NVIDIA's general release brings along: Guitar Hero: World Tour, Earthrise, Digital Combat Simulator: Black Shark, Shadow Harvest, and Terminator: Salvation.

The software works in conjunction with NVIDIA GeForce drivers, and helps expand the list of games that support NVIDIA SLI technology beyond what the drivers offer. For a 3D application to take full-advantage of SLI technology, typically NVIDIA creates an SLI profile that is released along with a usually new driver release. Registered EVGA users can download the patch from here.

EVGA released the 10th version of its SLI Enhancement Patch since its initial release in mid-February. The patch expands upon the SLI profiles NVIDIA's official drivers come with. An SLI profile is an application-specific optimization to take advantage of two or more NVIDIA GPUs in an SLI setup. With this release (version 10, 04.24.09), EVGA adds SLI support for the games Zeno Clash and Merchants of Brooklyn. The patch is based on NVIDIA GeForce 185.68 driver, and is available for 32/64-bit versions of Windows XP and Vista. Registered EVGA users can download the software from here.

EVGA released another version of its SLI Enhancement Patch, version 8 (03.30.09), its third one for this month alone. The patch works in conjunction with the installed NVIDIA GeForce driver, in providing SLI support to games through SLI profiles. The support is game-specific, and each release of the patch expands the support-base. The new version is based on NVIDIA driver 182.46. The following games are added to the support list, apart from all the games already supported by the patch:

• Battlefield Heroes
• Stormrise
• Weapons of Fate
• Jumpgate Evolution
• Age of Booty
• Football Manager '05-'09

Registered EVGA users can download the patch from here.

Just under a week ago we covered the release of a driver add-on from EVGA which adds SLI profiles to the 182.05 driver from NVIDIA, for some of the latest released demos and games. It seems that EVGA have now released a second version of their SLI Enhancement patch, this could end up being a regular occurance, as games and demos are frequently arriving on the market, faster than NVIDIA can release fully fledged drivers. Unfortunately, they are not available to all NVIDIA SLI users, as you must be a registered member with EVGA to access the download links. The patches are available for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions Windows Vista, changes in this version are as follows:

• Enables SLI support for Grand Ages: Rome Demo
• Enables SLI support for Codename: Panzers Cold War Demo
• Enables SLI support for Men Of War Beta
• Improved SLI support for Burnout Paradise
• Enables SLI support for NecroVision Demo (DX10 Mode)

You can find more information along with the download links here.

EVGA today announced a new piece of value-added feature for its customers: the EVGA SLI Enhancement. The feature forms as a part of NVIDIA Forceware drivers that has an expanded SLI profiles list. To make full use of two or more GPUs teamed in an SLI setup, games and 3D applications need "SLI profiles". The general Forceware driver isn't necessarily in tune with the frequency at which new games are released. EVGA has taken the initiative to release SLI profiles for games before NVIDIA does.

The company released the first release of the SLI Enhancement (version: 02.11.09), which is based on NVIDIA Forceware 182.05 driver suite, and supports the entire range of graphics products EVGA currently sells. When installed, the software intends to boost performance in SLI setups for Burnout Paradise and Necrovision Demo (DX10 Mode), apart from all the applications Forceware 182.05 already has profiles for. The software is exclusive for registered EVGA customers. Visit this page for more.

Patch Tuesday is here with five critical and there important patches that address multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office, Windows and Internet Explorer. One of the five critical patches is designed to resolve a flaw in Microsoft Office Project, which could allow attackers to take complete control of users' systems if they open a malicious Office Project file. A second critical patch is designed to tackle GDI (Graphics Device Interface) vulnerabilities in Windows. One of the security bulletins is a cumulative patch for IE, and the other is designed to resolve vulnerabilities in ActiveX Kill Bits. Microsoft also issued a critical Windows patch for vulnerabilities in its VBScript and JScript Scripting engines, which could provide attackers with access to users' systems and allow them to install programs, as well as view and change data. Download and find more information here: Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for April 2008.

The first patch for Crysis has been released, which you can download from here. The changes are as follows:

Fixes:

• Damage dealt to vehicles when shot by LAW has been made consistent
• F12 (screenshot) now works in restricted mode as well
• When player melees during gun raise animation, their gun will not be in a permanently raised position anymore
• Memory leaks and potential crashes

Developer Infinity Ward has just released the 1.4 patch for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The changes are as follows:

• "Winter Crash", a holiday version of Multiplayer map "Crash"
• Improvements to the server browser
• Fixed some rare bullet accuracy issues for all weapons.
• For server admins: fixed user ban list not working correctly on servers. Ban.txt will be created in the main or fs_game directory

You can download the patch from here.

Developer Infinity Ward has just released the 1.3 patch for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

This patch addresses the issue reported by community member Uzi Kidding which now catches some files bypassing the pure client test. In addition this update will set properties so that Anti-lag is always enabled upon map loads, an optimization for Sniper Rifle accuracty at certain distances, as well a fix so text chat between rounds of multiplayer will no longer cut out at the end. The 1.3 patch will also include all previous fixes from previous patches.

You can download the patch from here.

Microsoft has released a new compatibility pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 file formats. This pack should allow Office 2000, XP or 2003 users to open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations using the Office 2007 format, which may be useful to people moving documents between work and home where different versions of Office are in use. Before you install the pack, make sure you have installed all high priority updates from Microsoft Update - you can download the 27.5MB pack here.