Frequently Asked Questions About The Security Bulletin Search Tool

What is new in the Security Bulletin Search Tool?

On December 13, 2004 Microsoft released an update to the Security Bulletin Search Tool. The update includes improvements to the search results displayed when a search is conducted with the “show only bulletins that contain updates that have not been replaced by a more recent update” selected. This will allow customers to more consistently determine which updates have been superseded.

On October 27, 2003, Microsoft released a new version of the Security Bulletin Search Tool. The updated tool provides an attractive new interface, but the changes go far beyond the cosmetic. The following features have been added:

• The ability to search only for updates of a particular severity: Updates are rated from Low to Critical. If your company has a policy to install only updates rated as Important or Critical, you can use this feature to easily determine which updates to apply. Read more information about the severity ratings

• More inclusiveness: More bulletins are displayed when you search on a given product because the new search tool finds updates for components that shipped with the product as well as updates for the product itself.
• The ability to search only for updates that have not been replaced by a more recent update: This makes it easier to find only those security updates that you need while helping you get the latest fix available. (To search only for updates that have not been replaced by a more recent update, you must select both a product and a specific service pack for that product.)
• More comprehensive information: The search results display has been updated to show more information about the bulletins, including severity rating and the products that a bulletin applies to.
• Time-sensitive searches: Now you can perform time-sensitive searches for security bulletins. For example, you can specifically search for all bulletins released within the last 7 days, last 14 days, last month, etc.