Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has released an automated tool to neutralize the recent vulnerability that was discovered in the Windows Shell, which we reported on last week. Called "Fix It," the automated tool is available on Microsoft's support website and will mitigate the vulnerability temporarily by preventing shortcut files from being displayed.

Of course, this is hardly desirable from a usability point of view, since the icons will be replaced by a generic white icon after a reboot. But with the security flaw affecting almost every version of Windows, it is almost a certainty that hackers are even now leveraging this security problem to exploit systems. At the minimum, administrators who have not already done so should apply the tool on affected server machines.

An actual fix from Microsoft is expected in the weeks ahead, either as part of August's Patch Tuesday update, or even earlier.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Windows IT Pro
- check out this article at Computerworld 

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