KB955020 Update for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is probably one of the most useless and nonsense update hotfix rolled out to non-English and non-German versions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It only affects English and German dictionary of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, yet, it seems like Microsoft decides to publish KB955020 to all copy of Windows Vista installed, regardless of language editions.

What KB955020 does is essentially adding some words, such as “Friendster,” “Klum,” “Nazr,” “Obama,” and “Racicot” which are not recognized and flagged as misspelled when user checks the spelling of English and German language text in supported applications, through updating of Nlslexicons0007.dll and Nlslexicons0009.dll files in Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008. One such application that uses Windows built-in dictionary is Windows Mail. These files are been updated to build version 6.0.6000.16710, 6.0.6000.20867, 6.0.6001.18098 or 6.0.6001.22211.

There is no problem for Microsoft to add the support of these new ‘in’ words into Windows dictionary. But the problem is the update reportedly taken up around 1 GB of disk space, adding oil to the fire as Windows Vista is already taken up big disk space to install and run. To make matter worse, not many people Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is actually using these dictionary – not many people is using Windows Mail email client.

If you’re running low on hard disk drive space, and decide that KB 955020 is not worth to install (even if you need these words in the dictionary, they can be added manually), DO NOT install KB955020 (it’s classify as “Important” update and lurking in the Windows Update waiting to be installed). If you have install it, try to remove and uninstall KB955020 from Control Panel (click on “View installed updates” to see KB955020).

After deleting off KB955020, user should be able to recover and reclaim up to 1GB of disk space back as free space.

For user who wants to skip KB955020, but want “Friendster,” “Klum,” “Nazr,” “Obama,” and “Racicot” to be recognized as a valid word, right click on the flagged word in affected program such as Windows Mail, and then click “Add to Dictionary”, and confirm “Add to Dictionary” in the Spelling & Grammar dialog box. When you add the word to the dictionary, the word is added to the Custom.dic dictionary file.