Microsoft hopes to be ready when hundreds of thousands of computers infected with the MSBlast worm start pelting its Windows Update service with data requests on midnight Friday. The company has taken steps to try to dodge the denial-of-service attack, but it's also begun educating Windows users about other ways to get updates and patches in the event that the update service is made unavailable.

"We are preparing," said Stephen Toulouse, security program manager for Microsoft's security research center. "We are working diligently to make sure that our customers can get the patch." The primary payload of the MSBlast worm, which began infecting systems Monday, is a DoS attack against the service from which most Windows users get their updates. If successful, the maneuver would frustrate efforts to patch the Windows vulnerability the worm exploits. The strategy is also a way of simply harassing the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant; the worm's code contains a message for the company's founder: "billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!"