Microsoft has set up a comprehensive infrastructure for the delivery and deployment of updates targeting its Windows operating system. Although the company is not yet ready to abandon the practice of issuing service packs for its platforms, it has indicated that large refreshes are becoming less relevant, and on their way to be declared obsolete due to Windows Update. But at the same time, Windows Update is by no means a foolproof system. In fact, Microsoft indicated that under some circumstances, updates delivered via the service and Windows Vista will not mix, and generate a variety of issues.

This is why the Redmond company is offering two updates, addressing both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Vista. The BITS Repair Tool for Windows Vista is designed to resolve corruptions of the BITS state files. "After you download updates from Windows Updates on a Windows Vista-based computer, you may experience the following symptoms: a dialog appears that indicates that the host process for Windows Services has stopped working; and after you restart the computer, a Windows Update dialog box appears. This dialog box contains the following message: Some Updates were not installed; Failed: xx updates; Error(s) Found: Code 800706BA", informs KB article 940520 from Microsoft.

In the eventuality that the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) state files become corrupted, host process for Windows Services will be killed. In this context, Vista will no longer be able to turn to BITS for any file transfer. In case you come across the error described above on your copy of Vista, then simply download and install the BITS Repair Tool for Windows Vista that you can access here for the 32-bit editions and here for the 64-bit SKUs. After deployment, restart your machine and all subsequent updates should install with no problems.