thanks to wings, i know have this!  unfortunately i can't update it automatically via the battle.net link in game, unless i'm missing something, which is highly likely.  If anyone could point me in the direction of the most recent patch i'd appreciate it.

wc3 should automatically patch when you log into bnet i believe....

This is the problem. It isn't doing what it should do. Hence his frustration. Quite annoying actually, having to update automatically, while not difficult, is still far less convenient than things being done for you.

I get the same problem with hon sometimes. What works for me is opening up every other application (all firefox windows, skype, msn, etc) and then opening hon last. This takes it out of minimization, and keeps it that way. This may not work for you at all, but it did for me, no idea why.