According to Paul Thurrott at WinInformant, Microsoft is working to end the patch management nightmare by creating a new, centralized patch-management architecture that it will use for all its products; this infrastructure will be used by a new generation of services, such as Microsoft Update, and tools, like the company's installer programs. This week, the company issued its first beta of Microsoft Installer 3.0, one of two installer programs Microsoft will support under the new patch management scheme. "Customers told us to reduce the vulnerabilities in our products before they ship, and to get fixes out before vulnerabilities are exploited," a Microsoft representative told Thurrott. "It's not easy delivering timely, high quality patches under our current system. So we need to simplify patch management, and create tools to do this effectively and consistently." Microsoft Installer 3.0should ship in early 2004, Thurrott says.