diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.9.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.9.rst
index a9e747a8c37e946..359e88d0b8bff76 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.9.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.9.rst
@@ -1847,3 +1847,20 @@ tempfile
a :exc:`PermissionError` is no longer masked by :exc:`NotADirectoryError`
(:issue:`43153`), and cleanup no longer recurses endlessly when the
temporary directory itself cannot be removed (:gh:`79325`).
+
+
+Notable changes in 3.9.25.3
+===========================
+
+This is an ActiveState release of the 3.9 line, on top of 3.9.25.2.
+
+Build Changes
+-------------
+
+* Windows release builds now link with ``/OPT:REF,NOICF``. With identical
+ COMDAT folding enabled, newer Visual Studio linkers merge two internal slot
+ wrappers whose code is identical, and the type machinery relies on their
+ addresses being different. On such builds, ``+`` with an instance of a
+ subclass of a built-in type (for example an :class:`int` or
+ :class:`datetime.datetime` subclass) returned :data:`NotImplemented`
+ instead of raising :exc:`TypeError`. (Backport of :issue:`42825`.)
diff --git a/Include/patchlevel.h b/Include/patchlevel.h
index 988aba035a6fa8b..9db78558a0ceac4 100644
--- a/Include/patchlevel.h
+++ b/Include/patchlevel.h
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
#define PY_RELEASE_SERIAL 0
/* Version as a string */
-#define PY_VERSION "3.9.25.2"
+#define PY_VERSION "3.9.25.3"
/*--end constants--*/
/* Version as a single 4-byte hex number, e.g. 0x010502B2 == 1.5.2b2.
diff --git a/PCbuild/pyproject.props b/PCbuild/pyproject.props
index 2b4be392da47ae6..d492b71dfbaa3d2 100644
--- a/PCbuild/pyproject.props
+++ b/PCbuild/pyproject.props
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@
PGInstrument
PGUpdate
advapi32.lib;shell32.lib;ole32.lib;oleaut32.lib;%(AdditionalDependencies)
+ /OPT:REF,NOICF %(AdditionalOptions)
true