I’m sure by the time you get to this entry at Digg, the number of Diggs will have gone up. But still…
I don’t want to make light of this issue, but I haven’t really had a chance to look closely at it yet. One big reason is that every one of my e-mail accounts has server-based virus protection and anti-spam filtering, which strips any infected documents or completely blocks the messages containing them.
In addition, every antivirus software provider appears to have updated its signatures to stop these attachments from getting through. ZDNet and eWeek are reporting that Microsoft recommends running Word in Safe Mode until a patch is available. That’s a pretty extreme solution.
Ed Bott 
Zero-day flaws won’t be helped much by a virus scanner until the companies update them. They won’t update them until the flaw is made public. Don’t you think you’re a little overconfident in your protection at the moment? You should do what I do… I run Windows XP in a VMware window with no guest OS network connection back my host. It works brilliantly in preventing virus attacks on my system.
Overconfident? I don’t think so.
I have a multi-layered defense of which AV is the last layer. My mail server does an excellent job of blocking potentially dangerous messages. I literally can’t remember the last time I saw an infected file get past it.
I run IE7 in Protected Mode, which means an exploit would be unable to write to any area where it could do damage.
The exploit discussed here involves opening an infected Word document. Even if one of those gets through to me, my antennae are receptive to the idea that Word documents may be dangerous and I don’t open them automatically.
So no, I feel like I am reasonably protected.
I have Office installed such that I never use it from an admin account. The apps don’t even show up on the start menu for Administrator. (To do updates and to do the first-run configuration stuff, I elevate my limited safe-user account just long enough to get the adminstrative work done. I am looking for smoother ways to do that sort of thing.)
I thought encouraging Safe Mode was odd too, but the workarond isn’t about running Windows in Safe Mode. There’s a way to start Word in a special built-in safe mode. I haven’t tried it (I don’t receive Word documents in e-mail). The recommendation to not use Word as the e-mail editor seems sound too (although it has never occured to me to ever use Word for that).
PS: I’ve been rummaging around in Windows XP Inside Out the past few days and I must say the book is a blast. The little sidebar asides and tips are wonderful as is the comprehensive coverage. (I was researching good sources on Windows console sessions, and I will be recommending the coverage there to others.)