Update for Windows Vista SP1 (KB952709) Officially Released for Free Download

After briefly released Update for Windows Vista (KB952709) earlier this month and quickly retracted the download availability of the newest reliability and performance update, Microsoft finally and officially release the KB952709 in Microsoft Download Center for free download (WGA validation required, else use direct download link below), this time with full detailed information of what the update does.

According to Microsoft article on KB952709, the update resolves issues that may affect some Windows Vista SP1-based computers to improve the performance, responsiveness, and reliability of Windows Vista in the following problem scenarios:

• Improves the stability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by addressing some crashes that may occur when you try to check e-mail by using a POP3 e-mail client such as Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird. The crashes may occur on a Windows Vista SP1-based computer in the following scenario:
  • Incoming POP3 and outgoing SMTP traffic monitoring is enabled.
  • Both a third-party antivirus application and an antispyware application are installed, such as the following applications:
    • ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.
    • SpySweeper by Webroot Software, Inc.
• Improves the reliability of the Windows Vista SP1 based-computers by addressing some problems that occur when you delete user accounts by using the User Accounts item in Control Panel. When this problem occurs, the system may stop responding (hang).
• Improves the reliability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers that experience issues in which large applications cannot run after the computer is turned on for extended periods of time. For example, when you try to start Excel 2007 after the computer is turned on for extended periods of time, a user may receive an error message that resembles the following:

  EXCEL.EXE is not a valid Win32 application

• Improves the reliability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by reducing the number of crashes that may be caused by the Apple QuickTime thumbnail preview in Windows Live Photo Gallery.
• Improves the performance of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by reducing audio and video (AV) stuttering. Such AV stuttering may occur when the audio or video component is streaming high definition content from a Windows Vista SP1-based computer that has a NVIDIA network adapter nForce driver version 67.5.4.0 that is installed to a Windows Media Center Extender device.

As shown in the leaked KB952709 earlier this month, KB952709 upgrades Windows Vista SP1 to 6001.18063.080425-1930 (from originally 6001.18000.080118-1840). It appears that the re-released KB952709 also update build version to same build number (no change to previous download), as listed HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion registry key:

BuildLab: 6001.vistasp1_gdr.080425-1930
BuildLabEx: 6001.18063.x86fre.vistasp1_gdr.080425-1930

KB952709 update is now available for free download from Microsoft Download Center provided your system manages to pass the genuine Windows validation. Here’s the link to download page for 32-bit package and 64-bit package. If you want to skip and bypass the validation check, download directly the KB952709 update package from Microsoft server using direct download links listed here.

32-bit KB952709: Windows6.0-KB952709-x86.msu
64-bit KB952709: Windows6.0-KB952709-x64.msu

Note that KB952709 can only be installed on system running Windows Vista SP1. For those still hasn’t upgrade to Windows Vista SP1, download and install Windows Vista SP1 update package.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 1:22 am and is filed under Windows Vista. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.