Yesterday I spend a few hours on the phone with a client whose XP Outlook 2002 patch (MS04-009)and he was having problems. This client is pretty good about applying his Windows updates like I showed him to, and so when he had this complaint it seemed like a very reasonable one.
If there is a critical update for a MS product like Outlook, why isn't it on the Windows Update site?
My guess is that Microsoft might (rightly or wrongly) blame the Justice department and keeping other products out of the article on InfoWeek says that MS might have heard my client. They have plans to roll out a comprehensive updater product for small network administrators just like me (and him.) They even have plans to roll out an extended version in the future that would support updating other companies' software.