Third party software is one of the main attack vectors by which Windows systems are attacked, but what can be done about it? In the interests of encouraging exploit mitigation features that can protect against the dangers associated with such vulnerabilities, Microsoft Security Engineering Center personnel have published a paper entitled Mitigating Software Vulnerabilities that makes the case for using exploit mitigation technologies and describes the technologies that are available. You can find out more and find a link to it here:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2011/07/12/mitigating-software-vulnerabilities.aspx