Microsoft will ship seven security patches as part of this month’s Patch Tuesday update next week, three of which are labelled critical.
Windows, Office, Exchange and Internet Explorer will all be fixed as part of the update, with December being quieter than the two preceding months.
Russ Ernst, director of product management at security firm Lumension, noted that the patches combined with "a holiday season filled with eggnog and office parties means business productivity could take a hit".
"With the balance of next week’s bulletins impacting Windows, December will be a month for IT to focus on the desktop," he added.
"This isn’t to say servers can be ignored however – it looks like Microsoft will also release the Exchange update originally planned for the November – and this fact is especially true if you’re still using Windows Server 2003."
Microsoft will have released 84 security patches during this year, 21 less than last year and one more than in 2012, but the number of critical patches is down to 29, compared to 42 last year and 29 in 2012.
