Sixteen updates on tap for April Patch Tuesday

An advance notification regarding Microsoft's Patch Tuesday promises eight security updates to Windows, Office, and IE vulnerabilities and eight more non-security related updates for Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services.

Five of the patches are rated as "Critical," the highest level of severity given to updates, and most of those patches affect Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The remaining three updates are classified as "Important." These updates may require a restart. There will also be eight high priority but non-security related updates on Windows Update and Windows Server Update Service.