Microsoft has put out a patch for Vista to handle the same graphics-rendering problem that Windows had earlier this month. This patch is specifically designed for the CTP (Community Technology Preview) of Vista released in December. It is only available to developer subscribers and beta testers.

This fix also deals with how Vista handles the Windows Metafile format since those files could essentially force a machine to run other code. If by chance the WMF files are opened, they could allow code to download and run malicious software.

This same vulnerability caused lots of drama with the software giant since it knew about the vulnerability and decided to wait until its own patch cycle to patch it. A patch by an outside Microsoft source was highly praised by others while some denounced the application of the outside patch. This in turn led to Microsoft's breaking its natural patch cycle and issuing their own fix.

No one yet knows how Microsoft Corp. plans on handling Vista's patch releases, but some may bring to light the recent unfolding of the WMF flaw to point out that the normal patch cycle is not working as smoothly as Microsoft hoped it would.