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### What is DirectX?

DirectX is a series of software technologies developed by Microsoft. Their purpose was to enable compelling games experiences on the PC. The actual range of technologies is far reaching but the core ones are

- Direct3D - Allows fast access to 3D accelerators
- DirectSound - Allows playing and mixing of sounds
- DirectPlay - Allows fast networking
- DirectInput - Allows connection and use of a wide variety of devices (like steering wheels, force feedback joysticks)

Without this technology the games cannot access the facilities which may well mean that they are unable to run.

For more details on DirectX go to the DirectX homepage on the Microsoft site. You can find Microsoft's description of DirectX here.

### What version should I use?

Generally you should use the latest version of DirectX. There have been a few major releases of DirectX so far.

- DirectX3 - First version with Direct3D.
- DirectX5 - Sweeping updates. The first good version of DirectX.
- DirectX6 - Updates and upgrades particularly in the area of 3D SFX.
- DirectX7 - Wide range of updates including DirectMusic realtime music generation.

DirectX8 is the latest release version which improves the technology once again.

Microsoft has developed this technology such that products using older versions of the system should work fine on newer versions of the system.

For example a game requiring DirectX5 will work fine (or maybe even better) on DirectX6. This follows on with DirectX8. So generally you are safe to always have the latest version of DirectX on your machine.

### How do I know if I have DirectX?

If you have bought a new multimedia PC in the last 18 months then it will come preinstalled with a version of DirectX. If you want to check if you have it installed, and/or which version, then you should run 'dxdiag'.

To do this

- Click on the 'Start' button.
- Select the 'Run...' option from the menu.
- Type in 'dxdiag' in the open box
- Either press return or click 'ok'

This will bring up a page of information on DirectX, at the bottom of the page the current DirectX version will be listed. If this page does not appear there is a good chance that DirectX is not installed on your machine.

If you are still not sure if you have DirectX installed you may want to just download and install the latest version.

### Where do I get it from?

Warning! Installing DirectX is usually a simple and painless experience - but be warned it is not always this way, and sometimes it can badly configure your machine.

Therefore we recommend you only install a new version of DirectX if you really have to or you have enough PC knowledge to know how to fix things if it goes wrong. Generally it's a good idea to back up any important work on your machine before attempting to install DirectX.

Go to the Microsoft DirectX Download pages.