In this issue:

• Microsoft Releases Vista Performance Fixes
• Microsoft Security Bulletin
• Windows Updates
• Recent Support BBS Postings
• Newsletter Schedule
• Administrivia

Microsoft Releases Vista Performance Fixes

by Arie Slob

Hello Windows users,

In the second week of August Microsoft released two 'rollup' patches for Windows Vista. The two patches resolve a number of reliability, compatibility and performance issues that have been reported frequently over the past few months.

The compatibility and reliability update resolves the following issues:

• 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
• A computer that has NVIDIA G80 series graphic drivers installed stops responding
• 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

Downloads:

For more information about this update, read Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938194.

The performance update resolves the following issues:

• 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

Downloads:

For more information about this update, read Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938979.

Microsoft Security

Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin Summary for August, 2007

The security update for August 2007 includes five updates for Microsoft Windows, and two for Internet Explorer.

Severity Rating: Critical

• Vulnerability in Microsoft XML Core Services Could Allow Remote Code Execution (936227)
• Vulnerability in OLE Automation Could Allow Remote Code Execution (921503)
• Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (937143)
• Vulnerability in GDI Could Allow Remote Code Execution (938829)
• Vulnerability in Vector Markup Language Could Allow Remote Code Execution (938127)

Severity Rating: Important

• Vulnerability in Windows Media Player Could Allow Remote Code Execution (936782)
• Vulnerabilities in Windows Gadgets Could Allow Remote Code Execution (938123)