About the TortoiseCVS Make Patch function, I read somewhere that it's NOT recommended to use because it doesn't accepts diff -u (unified format) parameter, even if you specify to do so.
BTW, I don't tried to see if it's true or has changed.
i use
evey day, but also encountered some problems with Tortoise CVS
my solution for this is simple:
i installed WinCVS, which installes a separate copy of
"Concurrent Versions System (CVSNT) 2.0.51d (client/server)"
be sure to have it in your path settings and you can use from the commandline
that works great parallel to TortoiseCVS, which comes with another copy of CVSNT