Operating Systems

Microsoft's October Patch Tuesday, released on October 13, 2026, is the largest in the company's history. Cisco Talos counted 1,415 vulnerabilities addressed across Microsoft products, including 85 rated critical, 67 of them remote code execution flaws. Computer Weekly noted that the total exceeds the number Microsoft fixed in all of 2023, and that it shatters the previous record of roughly 1,000 flaws set just last month, which itself had passed a mark of a little over 600 set in July. By comparison, the October 2025 release addressed about 175 flaws.

Ubuntu 26.10, codenamed "Stonking Stingray," is scheduled for release on October 15, 2026, with nine months of support. Most enterprises will stay on the 26.04 LTS, but for users with the newest hardware — especially Intel's Panther Lake laptops — testing by Phoronix shows the interim release is worth a serious look.

IT administrators have four days left on a deadline that affects millions of PCs. On October 13, 2026, Windows 11 version 24H2 in Home and Pro editions reaches end of updates, alongside Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 2016 and Office 2021. After that date, those editions stop receiving Microsoft's monthly security and non-security updates.