Patch Tuesday comes for Vista too

While Microsoft has touted Windows Vista as its most secure client operating system yet, the unfinished product is already getting regular security fixes.

Vista, slated to be broadly available in January, is the first major Microsoft product to get security updates while it is still in beta, Microsoft employee Alex Heaton wrote on a corporate blog Tuesday.

"We are committed to release Windows Vista updates for all MSRC (Microsoft Security Response Center) critical class issues that may arise during the beta-testing period," wrote Heaton, who works on Vista security. The goal is to release the fixes as soon as possible, he said--but versions of Windows that have been commercially released, such as Windows XP, get priority.