Microsoft is gearing up to release a version of its Visual Studio integrated developer environment that it promises will be easy enough for even business managers to use.

Microsoft Tuesday said it will deepen ties between its Visual Studio development tools and the secure applications development processes first developed inside the company and now available to outsiders.

As promised, Microsoft today patched six vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer (IE) and Visual Studio with the first "out-of-cycle" update since it plugged a hole last October that the Conficker worm later used to run rampant.

Microsoft is taking the unusual step of rushing out two emergency security patches ahead of its regularly scheduled updates on Aug. 11.

Offering assistance with application security, Microsoft is extending on Tuesday its Security Development Lifecycle processes to its Visual Studio Team System for application lifecycle management.

Developers building solutions based on Microsoft's SharePoint collaboration and business process platform will gain expanded support in the planned Visual Studio 2010 development environment, which will feature templates and an extensibility API, a Microsoft official said in a blog on Thursday.