Microsoft Outlook Patch Available

If you haven't already done so, the patch to prevent such viruses as the worldly famous, and equally devastating, ILOVEYOU worm for Microsoft's e-mail program Outlook is available for download. However, The Register is reporting that the intended fix for Outlook may be more trouble than its worth.

The patch works by preventing any external application from using the address book without user permission. But after wading through the lengthy process of upgrading your system to handle the patch, it may cause problems and prevent some of the handy features of Internet Explorer from working properly.

First of all, Office 2000 users must install Service Release 1 of the Office suite, which in itself came under fire for causing a myriad of problems with existing installations of the suite. Microsoft in turn had to issue a patch to that service release last month. So, after completing the ever slow and lengthy download of the service pack and related patch, users can then download the Outlook patch and proceed to install it.

Not only is it difficult for 2000 users, but those users who have Outlook 97 must upgrade to Outlook 98 for the fix to be effective.

While you can add file extensions to the list that is blocked by the patch, you cannot remove any of the file extensions that Microsoft has built into the fix. ActiveX, JavaScript, and Visual Basic are all automatically blocked by the patch, and apparently synching your personal digital assistant (PDA) will prove to be more difficult.

The patch can be downloaded from Microsoft's Office Update site.