Index: Lib/distutils/msvc9compiler.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/distutils/msvc9compiler.py	(revision 81049)
+++ Lib/distutils/msvc9compiler.py	(working copy)
@@ -656,17 +656,19 @@
                 mfid = 1
             else:
                 mfid = 2
-                self._remove_visual_c_ref(temp_manifest)
-            out_arg = '-outputresource:%s;%s' % (output_filename, mfid)
-            try:
-                self.spawn(['mt.exe', '-nologo', '-manifest',
-                            temp_manifest, out_arg])
-            except DistutilsExecError, msg:
-                raise LinkError(msg)
+                if os.path.splitext(output_filename)[1].lower() == '.pyd':
+                    self._remove_visual_c_ref(temp_manifest, ld_args)
+            if not '/MANIFEST:NO' in ld_args:
+                out_arg = '-outputresource:%s;%s' % (output_filename, mfid)
+                try:
+                    self.spawn(['mt.exe', '-nologo', '-manifest',
+                                temp_manifest, out_arg])
+                except DistutilsExecError, msg:
+                    raise LinkError(msg)
         else:
             log.debug("skipping %s (up-to-date)", output_filename)
 
-    def _remove_visual_c_ref(self, manifest_file):
+    def _remove_visual_c_ref(self, manifest_file, ld_args):
         try:
             # Remove references to the Visual C runtime, so they will
             # fall through to the Visual C dependency of Python.exe.
@@ -674,6 +676,8 @@
             # runtimes are not in WinSxS folder, but in Python's own
             # folder), the runtimes do not need to be in every folder
             # with .pyd's.
+            # Append '/MANIFEST:NO' to ld_args if no dependencies other
+            # than MSVC are found.
             manifest_f = open(manifest_file)
             try:
                 manifest_buf = manifest_f.read()
@@ -686,6 +690,11 @@
             manifest_buf = re.sub(pattern, "", manifest_buf)
             pattern = "<dependentAssembly>\s*</dependentAssembly>"
             manifest_buf = re.sub(pattern, "", manifest_buf)
+            pattern = re.compile(
+                r"""<assemblyIdentity.*?name=(?:"|')(.+?)(?:"|')"""\
+                r""".*?(?:/>|</assemblyIdentity>)""", re.DOTALL)
+            if re.search(pattern, manifest_buf) is None:
+                ld_args.append('/MANIFEST:NO')
             manifest_f = open(manifest_file, 'w')
             try:
                 manifest_f.write(manifest_buf)