Microsoft has released a couple of hotfixes based on the feedback it has got from various people using the “Error Reporting Service” and sending in dumps. As far as I am aware, as of now these are not pushed via Windows update.

The first one is supposed to improve compatibility and reliability of Vista; here are the things it resolves:

  • The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver.
  • The computer stops responding, and you receive a “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error message. You can restart the computer only by pressing the computer’s power button.
  • The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.
  • The Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) stops responding when the computer is under heavy load or when very little memory is available. This problem prevents diagnostics from working.
  • The screen goes blank after an external display device that is connected to the computer is turned off. For example, this problem may occur when a projector is turned off during a presentation.
  • There are stability issues with some graphics processing units (GPUs). These issues could cause GPUs to stop responding (hang).
  • Visual appearance issues occur when you play graphics-intensive games.
  • You experience poor playback quality when you play HD DVD disks or Blu-ray disks on a large monitor.
  • Applications that load the Netcfgx.dll component exit unexpectedly.
  • Windows Calendar exits unexpectedly after you create a new appointment, create a new task, and then restart the computer.
  • Internet Connection Sharing stops responding after you upgrade a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista and then restart the computer.
  • The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.
  • You receive a "Stop 0x0000009F" error when you put the computer to sleep while a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection is active.

The second one improves performance and reliability  and resolved the following:

  • You experience a long delay when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.

  • A memory leak occurs when you use the Windows Energy screen saver.

  • If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.

  • When you write data to an AVI file by using the AVIStreamWrite function, the file header of the AVI file is corrupted.

  • When you copy or move a large file, the “estimated time remaining” takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.

  • After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen.

  • When you synchronize an offline file to a server, the offline file is corrupted.

  • If you edit an image file that uses the RAW image format, data loss occurs in the image file. This problem occurs if the RAW image is from any of the following digital SLR camera models:

  • Canon EOS 1D

  • Canon EOS 1DS

  • After you resume the computer from hibernation, the computer loses its default gateway address.

  • Poor memory management performance occurs.

I have applied both these patches on one my laptops (running Vista x32) and other than the hibernation fixes I have not seen any noticeable difference; nevertheless I would still recommend you install it.