New X-Fi Drivers - XP/Vista/Windows 7

Came out today,

Creative Worldwide Support > X-Fi XtremeMusic

Release date : 26 Jun 09
This download is a driver providing Microsoft® Windows® 7, Windows Vista® and Windows XP support for Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ series of audio devices. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.
File Name : SBXF_PCDRV_LB_2_18_0013.exe
This download is a driver providing Microsoft® Windows® 7, Windows Vista® and Windows XP support for Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ series of audio devices. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.

This download supports the following audio devices only:

• Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty® Professional Series
• Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series
• Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
• Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
• Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
• Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
• Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
• Sound Blaster X-Fi

Added Features or Enhancements:
For systems using Windows 7 or Windows Vista

• What U Hear feature is enabled.

To find out the Product ID of your audio device and if it supports the following feature in Windows XP, click here.
​

• Dolby® Digital and DTS® decode re-established for sound cards that included decoding in their Windows XP drivers (Not applicable for products that included a 3rd party software DVD player license in the package).

Requirements:

• Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 7 32-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista 32-bit with SP1, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005 or Windows XP MCE 2004
• Sound Blaster X-Fi audio devices listed above

Notes:

• Do not install this driver for Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio.
• To install this driver
  1. Download the SBXF_PCDRV_LB_2_18_0013.exe file onto your local hard disk.
  2. Double-click the downloaded file.
  3. Follow the instructions on the screen.

Click to expand...

yay!!! I have the Creative X-fi XM... will install it in a few minutes

edit: wow SLOWWWWWW download... running between 60-90kbps... most downloads I get run from 700-1200kbps... oh well, 12 minutes to go.

I'm glad the X-Fi Extreme warning was there.

got it installed and I hear no difference... but it is nice to have proper W7 Creative drivers instead of some Vista-compatible drivers.

ok - this is not a problem, more of a query trying to find something out...

i've got an x-fi extreme gamer card, and i went and downloaded these drivers.

after installation, i went and checked msconfig to see if creative had added anything to my startup or services, and sure enough, 1 startup program (ctxfihlp.exe) and 2 services (creative audio engine licensing service and creative audio service).

i have disabled all of these extras, as i like to run a tight ship with minimum of unnecessary software, and so far i have not noticed any problems with any games or apps. i have found this has been the case for years for my old vista and xp installations.

anyone know what any of these are for? as i say i've had no problems disabling them, but i can't help but wonder if i'm missing out on something...

Not sure that anyone short of creative (and even then I am doubtful) really knows what ctxfihlp.exe does. I do know that I have never run into any issues from disabling it, or its previous Audigy equivalent (CTHelper.exe).

As far as the other two go have never really seen anything about what the Audio Service does, but the second (licensing engine) is if you have the DDL or DTS:Connect installed, it is required for wither of them to work.