I know that my request may have led one to believe that I didn't know what I
was doing to begin with.  Actually the problem is the language on the
Microsoft download page where it seemed clear that they recommended use of
the 64 bit debugger for 64 bit processors even if you were debugging a 32 bit
application.  I "simply" followed their apparent recommendation.

As for the debugger being helpful. You are probably right in your opinion
that it will not help.  I recognize that the debugger requires a fairly broad
understanding of basic programming concepts and some knowledge of assembler
language.  While I am no longer an active programmer I do have a distant
recollection of most of these principles.  Other than to take this approach I
can only think to totally reinstall Vista and start reloading applications
until I stumble across the offending product (assuming that it really is an
application that is causing the problem).

Since this problem is totally random (may occur twice in a day or once in a
week) it could take months to isolate the cause using the reinstall method.

Thanks again for caring and answering intelligently.