Microsoft on Tuesday released a slew of patches for Windows and Office.

The patches, which include critical fixes for both Office and Windows, can be manually downloaded from Microsoft's Web site.

Tuesday's 10 security bulletins, which include six critical fixes for both Office and Windows, are designed to fix more than two dozen flaws in Microsoft's software.

Antivirus company Symantec said the updates include patches for Office flaws for which exploit code already exists, including an Excel vulnerability that surfaced in July and a Word exploit that emerged last month.

IT administrators may want to work particularly quickly in deploying three of the patches--MS06-057, MS06-058 and MS06-060.

Microsoft also noted that it expects to release Windows Internet Explorer 7 later this month, with the browser update scheduled to be delivered shortly thereafter via Windows Update and Automatic Update. The company said it is providing a blocker tool that will allow businesses to prevent their computers from receiving the new browser. Businesses that don't want IE7 should have the blocking tool in place by November 1, Microsoft said.