Microsoft has quietly released four new updates for Vista that improve on performance and reliability. As of right now it’s unclear as to which of these updates, if any, will be made available on October 9th’s Patch Tuesday, but they are currently all available for individual download.
The first update that I want to mention really caught my attention. It is said to improve battery life, increase stability, and much more. Here’s a list of the more prominent things that it is supposed to improve, as well as some of the issues it is supposed to solve:
- It extends the battery life for mobile devices.
- It improves the reliability of Windows Vista when you open the menu of a startup application.
- It improves the stability of Internet Explorer when you open a Web page.
- It improves the stability of wireless network services.
- It shortens the startup time of Windows Vista by using a better timing structure.
- It shortens the recovery time after Windows Vista experiences a period of inactivity.
- Resolves a compatibility issue that affects some third-party antivirus software applications.
- Resolves a reliability issue that occurs when a Windows Vista-based computer uses certain network driver configurations.
The homepage for the update (KB941649) is here, and there are both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors available for download. It appears that this update is still in testing though, and Microsoft recommends that you do not install it yet unless you’re experiencing issues that it resolves:
This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next service pack that contains this hotfix.
Meh, that makes it sound like it’s not coming out until Vista SP1 is released so I installed it anyway. 
Things do seem to be chugging along a bit faster than they were.
The other updates aren’t quite as important in my opinion, but are still worth mentioning:
- KB941229 (32-bit or 64-bit) – Update for Vista Media Center which resolves several issues.
- KB941600 (32-bit or 64-bit) – Fixes critical USB issues.
- KB941651 (32-bit or 64-bit) – Improves the reliability of Windows Media Player 11, but the homepage for the hotfix isn’t available so we’re not quite sure what it’s for.
Source: Techarena
I installed all all four updates and didn’t have any problems.
It may just be the power of suggestion but it seems like different windows and applications open slightly faster.
I noticed that as well. I guess it has a bit of magic in it. Hey, I’m not going to complain.
I’m glad they’re releasing the final pieces of the RTM OS
Not really the final pieces in my opinion, I just consider them to be improvements. XP was the exact same way when it was first released, and having been a pre-release tester of even XP I can say for certain that Vista is going through the exact same thing XP had gone through.
After I restarted my my system after installing these, I got a message saying that my copy of Vista was illegal and that I should buy my own copy. I couldn’t cancel that message, I could only go to the MS homepage and buy Vista.The only solution was to format and reinstall Vista.
I booted used Safe Mode, but that didn’t work either. Has MS disguised a “crack disabler” in one of these updates cause until now my PARADOX tool worked just fine.
Unfortunately (well, I guess fortunately) I don’t have an illegal version installed to test it out on. The updates have worked well on all my systems, but they are all legal. I might have to try this out in a virtual PC to see which update screwed things up. Thanks for the heads up!