Nerds only: a Vista update

The household census of computers here at Beijing HQ now includes:

- 2 WinXP laptops (one ThinkPad T40, one Compaq. This last is my wife's; Stoic that she is, she makes do with one.)

- 3 Macs (Mini, iBook, and the unbelievably glamorous MacBook Air, subject for another time)

- 1 Vista laptop (ThinkPad T60; used to be two Vistas, until I "downgraded" the T40 back to XP)

Each has its place in the great and intricate division of local labor. The Vista machine is partly a test bed to see how things are developing in Vista land. I have been making a list of tweaks and improvements to mention, but here is one that immediately caught my eye:

The latest WindowsUpdate for Vista (via WindowsUpdate on the Start menu -- important patches usually come out on the second Tuesday of each month), includes #943899, "an update that improves the performance, responsiveness, and reliability of Windows Vista." As if there might be any room for improvement in those realms.... The good news is that this patch is aimed at one of the most egregious (for me) Vista problems: its tendency to crash, hang, or churn for minutes on end when going in or out of hibernation. In specific the welcome news is:

This update improves performance, responsiveness, and reliability of Windows Vista in various scenarios. This update resolves the following issues on a Windows Vista-based computer:

• You receive a "Stop 0x000000A0" error when you try to switch the computer to the hibernate state.

• You receive a "Stop 0x0000009f" error when you switch the computer to the hibernate state or to the standby state. Or, you receive this Stop error when you resume the computer from the hibernate state or from the standby state. This problem occurs on a computer that has a wireless network connection.

• The disk does not spin down after a specified time of inactivity.

Well, those are the exact problems I often have. If this truly "resolves" the issue, then Huzzah. We will see. If you have Vista on a laptop, check it out.