A set of nine patches aimed at securing 14 bugs has been released by the software giant Microsoft.

The company has stated that six of the patches fix weaknesses that are "critical" and could be used by a cyber criminal. Windows Vista was the target of two of these patches.

None of the bugs that have been patched have been acknowledged by Microsoft in the past.

Don Leatham, director of solutions and strategy with PatchLink Corp, told IDG News: "People should definitely cancel their dinner plans and make sure they take this one seriously because both the breadth and impact of these are important.

"This is an intense month."

The patch release is the second largest by Microsoft so far this year.

Experts have said that the most critical flaw that was patched was the one in the graphics rendering engine. This flaw could potentially result in hackers fooling users into opening an email containing malware.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced that it has bought the ad company aQuantive for the sum of $6 billion.