Security updates help shield your computer from vulnerabilities, viruses, worms, and other threats as they are discovered. Install security updates for Windows and Windows components (such as Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and Windows Media Player). To do so, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Windows Update http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 311047 HOW TO: Keep your windows computer up-to-date

Note Microsoft Windows NT Workstation, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), and Windows 95 have reached the end of their product support life cycles. Updates that were provided for these operating systems are available on an archived basis on the Windows Update site. However, Microsoft no longer offers technical support for these releases. Because of this, consider upgrading to Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition so that you can take advantage of Automatic Updates and other security features that have been introduced since these older operating systems were released.

To install security updates for Microsoft Office products, visit the following Office Update Microsoft Web site: http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate

To install security updates for your other programs, contact the manufacturer of the program for additional information. To locate security updates for other Microsoft products, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.asp For example, you can locate security updates for Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), SQL Server, or Exchange Server at this Web site.

Note Network administrators can use the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) tool to centrally scan Windows-based computers for common security misconfigurations and generate individual security reports for each computer that it scans.
MBSA runs on computers that run Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. MBSA can scan for security vulnerabilities on computers that run Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

MBSA scans for common security misconfigurations in Windows, Internet Information Services (IIS), SQL Server, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Office. MBSA also scans for missing security updates in Windows, IIS, SQL Server, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Exchange Server, and Exchange 2000 Server For additional information about MBSA, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 320454 Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) version 1.1.1 is available If you are running Microsoft Outlook before version 2002, make sure that the Microsoft Outlook E-mail Security Update is installed:

• Outlook 2000 post-SP2 and Outlook 2002 SP1 include this security update by default.
• Outlook 2000 pre-SR1 and Outlook 98 do not include this functionality, but you can obtain it by installing the Outlook E-mail Security Update.

If you are running Outlook Express, use caution when you open e-mail attachments. By default, Outlook Express 6 SP1 blocks access to attachments.
Earlier versions of Outlook Express (pre-Outlook Express 6) do not contain attachment-blocking functionality. Use extreme caution when you open unsolicited e-mail messages with attachments.