Updating DirectX Drivers

There have been many versions of DirectX drivers released throughout the years. DirectX 10 is the latest and it comes with Windows Vista. For other Windows operating systems, such as XP, you can install earlier versions of this driver. You can do this by going the Start menu and typing “dxdiag” in the search box. Press enter and you will see the System” tab. You can see the version you are using by clicking System Information.

The DirectX driver is designed so that it is compatible with games that run on later versions for which they were written. You may run into problems when you are running new games on older versions of DirectX. If you show that you have versions 9.0, 9.0 a, b or c, you can find that you have incompatibility and errors occurring that will say that the dynamic link library cannot be found. You may also find that you have no sound or even come across a blank screen when running these programs.

The best option is to update your DirectX drivers so that you have the most recent version of the driver installed on your computer. This will enhance the performance of your game playing and will most likely get your games to run properly.

Driver Downloads

The latest version of DirectX for those who are not using Windows Vista is the DirectX 9.0c. This was released in November, 2008. It will work on Windows XP but not Windows 98 or ME. If you are working on those systems, the latest version of the DirectX driver is version 8.1. You cannot update the DirectX driver if you are using Windows NT.

To update DirectX drivers, you can download version 9 by going to Microsoft’s website and installing it so that it overwrites the prior version that you have in your computer. Once you install this, you will not be able to remove the diver. You should have a restore point that will enable you to revert to a working version if you find that you install the wrong version of the driver. Make sure that you are working on a version of Microsoft Windows that is genuine if you are to install driver downloads onto your computer.

You can install a driver download of DirectX 9 without saving any files. If you have any other computers on your network, you should also download drivers to each of them.

If you install DirectX 9.0c, it will download all of the files into one package. You can then update the drivers on all the machines much easier. Once you download the package of files and create a restore point, you can double click on the Direct X package and put the files into your temporary folder. After you have completed this process, you must then run DXSETUP.exe that will complete the installation process. After you are finished with this, you will then have to restart your computer.

Reformatted your PC? Recovering from a system crash? This video tutorial explains how users can restore their device driver files and settings from a previous driver backup to speed up the process of restoring your computer to its previous state.

This video shows users how they can backup their existing / currently installed device drivers. This is helpful when your have to reformat and install Windows and need to easily retrieve your latest devices drivers from this backup process.

This video shows users how they can completely remove old device drivers that are not displayed in Windows XP and Vista.

This video tutorial explains how users can revert back to their previous or original device drvier in the event the installed newer device driver is either corrupt or incorrect.

This video shows users how they can get the latest drivers for their video cards.