Security Promises and Their Status

Microsoft executives, including Chief Software Architect Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer, have promised to improve the security of the company’s products. This chart details these security-related promises and the progress Microsoft is making toward meeting them. It does not include announcements for shipping products, such as the Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server, nor does it include new features being added to existing products, such as Network Access Protection.

Security Promises	Status
Reduce the number of patches.	Ongoing. Security reviews on most products have uncovered most outstanding vulnerabilities, and beginning in Apr. 2004 monthly updates began patching several vulnerabilities in a single update.
Reduce the size of patches.	Microsoft has reduced the size of patches delivered by Windows Update by 80%.
Reduce the number of reboots after patching.	Microsoft has reduced the number of reboots caused by patch installation by 10% to