Since Tuesday April 9, 2024, Microsoft has released a new Patch Tuesday. On the program, 150 fixes for flaws and bugs in Windows and other software. but also some new functional features for Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Unsurprisingly, Microsoft published this Tuesday, April 9, 2024 its traditional Patch Tuesday, this famous set of fixes that the publisher distributes on the second Tuesday of each month, to repair bugs, but also, and above all, to fill recent security vulnerabilities. identified and sometimes already exploited by pirates. This spring delivery is no exception to the rule, bringing together in total some 150 “bandages” to correct vulnerabilities in Windows 10 and Windows 11 – of which around fifty concern remote code execution problems and two are of type zero- day, that is to say already actively exploited by hackers -, but also in other Microsoft products such as Edge, Office (Outlook, Excel, SharePoint) or even Azure. It is therefore better not to delay downloading and installing these patches to avoid any risk of piracy, even if there is no guarantee at the moment that this Patch Tuesday will not cause subsequent problems by itself, some recent updates from Microsoft having done more harm than good to users (see our article).
Patch Tuesday April 2024: important security fixes
As always, update references depend on the installed versions of Windows, and thus vary depending on the configurations. So don’t be surprised to see different numbers depending on the PCs you use. Here is the list of KB released with Patch Tuesday on April 9, with links to Microsoft’s official information pages for detailed information on what these versions bring. Note that Windows versions not present are no longer supported.
As usual, the documents relating to Patch Tuesday and the different versions of Windows refer to a host of flaws with details that will only interest experts – and even then… -, especially since they are written in a abstruse language, with information visibly translated directly from English by an automatic system. No interest for particular Windows users, except for the curious who want to know more about the two zero-day flaws corrected: CVE-2024-26234, which concerns a proxy driver spoofing flaw (a malicious driver, signed with a genuine Microsoft Hardware Publisher certificate), and CVE-2024-29988, a breach in the SmartScreen feature of Windows exploiting a vulnerability in a previous patch to deploy malware. Clearly topics for specialists!
Patch Tuesday April 2024: new features for Windows 10 and Windows 11
However, even if it essentially focuses on security, the April 2024 Patch Tuesday does not only include fixes for flaws and bugs: it also introduces some new features in Windows 11 as in Windows 10. Windows users 10 thus benefit from Windows Spotlight, a service which automatically displays new images retrieved from Bing as wallpaper. The update also adds new content to the lock screen, in addition to the weather (financial information, sports news, road traffic, etc.). Finally, and above all, following the application of the new European regulation, the DMA, it is now possible to choose an engine other than Bing in the Windows search area.
The case of Windows 11 is different in that the Patch Tuesday update requires the installation of several new features introduced a few weeks ago by Microsoft. Improvements of very diverse order and interest, which the publisher distributed in its usual confusion under the obscure name of Moment 5 (see our article for more details). The difference is that this version was previously offered as an option, particularly for those who chose to receive updates as soon as they were available in Windows Update. This time, it is imposed on everyone, via Patch Tuesday.
Patch Tuesday April 2024: easy installation
In practice, the procedure to follow to install Patch Tuesday is very simple. As always, simply go to Windows Update, via Windows Settings, search for the availability of updates by clicking on the appropriate button if they are not offered straight away, then click on the button Install. Please note, as Microsoft has obviously not unified its names, it is never a question of Patch Tuesday but of Cumulative Update. And, as always, you will have to restart the PC after downloading to start installing the new version.
We have not encountered any problems following the installation of the April Patch Tuesday on various PCs, but it may be wise to wait a few days before performing the update, while seeing if some users report problems on the forums, as is still too often the case. You can never be too careful!