Patches that Microsoft has planned for us next Tuesday

The updates will come as part of Microsoft's regular monthly security patch process, and will be made available to customers late Tuesday morning, Pacific time.

Less-serious updates are also being readied for Windows, Windows Vista, and Microsoft's Virtual PC and Virtual Server software, Microsoft said in a note on the upcoming patches, published Thursday.

With nine sets of patches, August will be a busy month for system administrators. Microsoft released just six updates in July, and has averaged around seven updates per month this year.

Here are the patches that Microsoft has planned for us next Tuesday:

* 6 CRITICAL patches - some of these will require a reboot

* 3 IMPORTANT patches - some of these will require a reboot

Microsoft is planning to release four non-security, high-priority updates on Microsoft Update and two non-security, high-priority updates for Windows on Windows Update.