THE DEVIL'S DUKE

Multimedia applications and Gaming software's are probably the most used and addictive programs on your PC. Gaming and multimedia industry is probably becoming the fastest growing industry for the computer world. The PC architecture of one computer can be different from other however the PC gaming consoles has the same hardware. In order to provide compatibility for the Gaming consol Manufacturers of PC had to provide a software which can talk between these multimedia programs and gaming consol. Due to the need of hour and to help the gaming and multimedia industry as Microsoft support initiative, Microsoft introduced a common standard for all games and multimedia applications as a common interface between the Operating System, Gaming hardware and multimedia application. This common interface is known as DirectX. To know more about DirectX in detail kindly refer to Online Microsoft support site.

Originally, DirectX was a toolkit due to shear reason that early we had limited hardware and basic Graphical functions. Later on as the hardware were getting more in number and advanced Microsoft support asked the manufacturers to provide DirectX compatible Hardware? For the Manufacturers who were not able to provide the drivers for DirectX on time, Microsoft released the compatibility packs which were available on Microsoft Support website or on manufacturer's website for windows support. In case the users faced difficulty or got error messages online Microsoft support on Microsoft website or online windows support on manufacturer's website is available. As hardware and software has evolved in complexity, so has DirectX. Microsoft support team and Manufacturer support team keeps on updating their database for users to provide windows support.

The current stable version of DirectX is DirectX 9.0. The information regarding DirectX 10.0 is available on Microsoft support website. DirectX 9.0 is compatible with Windows 98 and above versions including Windows Server 2003. Windows 95 would require DirectX 8.0a and Windows NT 4 DirectX 3.0a. Microsoft is working on DirectX 10.0 and is available for download and testing for Vista based machines from online Microsoft support site. All but the rarest cases, all versions of DirectX are backwardly compatible. Help on DirectX errors and problems with operating system are available at windows support on Microsoft support site.

Upgrading DirectX is relatively simple because all versions of Windows come with DirectX which cannot be removed. Many new games require latest version before they work properly, or even at all. The best place to look for the latest version of DirectX is on Microsoft support Web site, which is found at www.microsoft.com/windows/directx. Online Microsoft support is available for upgrading DirectX as and when the most recent build is available for general download. Another good source for getting DirectX is games manufacturers themselves, some of the manufacturers also provide free windows support for DirectX installation if you would purchase a Game CD from them.

Diagnosing an error or a problem with DirectX installation can be cumbersome sometimes and especially when you are not aware of the problematic components for newly purchased game. Microsoft support team kept this in mind and provides us with a useful utility called the DirectX Diagnostic Tool. One will not be able to locate this tool easily since it is not in the program options; however inbuilt windows support is a good location to look for this tool in Windows XP and online Microsoft support for previous versions. In order to launch the tool you simply need to click on start > run and type in dxdiag and then click OK.

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