Vista - "Microsoft Sync Center has stopped working"

i have never tried using windows sync center, never opened it (until i tried digging around for anwsers), etc.. etc.. but every now and then, seemingly spontaneously (but mostly when using windows explorer/firefox/anything at all) i'd get the dialog "Microsoft Sync Center has stopped working".

and that's all. no changes, no advice, no error reporting, no diagnosis, no nothing, doesn't do anything, doesn't stop anything, the only interference is having to deal with the dialog each time (can happen several times in a sitting).

i've searched these forums and google, but most advice is for people TRYING to sync things using this software, i'm NOT TRYING to sync anything! i have not found a hotfix/kb-update or anything, but i have found thousands of unhappy vista users with this particular software.... perhaps Micro$oft should release a patch/hotfix asap to resolve these issues??

is there anything i can do to prevent these annoying dialogs popping up all the time? i've tried downloading and installing Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 just today (the .exe was called drvupdate-x86) so i thought it might resolve the issue by installing most up-to-date-drivers but it seems to be a completely different software package, which also doesn't seem to do anything (out of curiosity i enabled bluetooth on both my vista machine and my nokia 6300 - nokia PC suite recognised it and connected with it, which MS-vista struggled (and failed) to find appropriate drivers).

i don't need this software, and am not interested in connecting my mobile (so please don't troubleshoot - i'm sure once vista finds the correct drivers it will be fine, i probably need to connect at home not via work-firewall) but if it so happens that the WMDC fixes the sync center dialogs, then so be it.

i'll keep you all posted.