If you have ever tried to run a game or any other multimedia on your PC, and received a message indicating that you need to install DirectX, don’t panic. DirectX is software that Windows uses for displaying videos and playing audio files in standard formats. It is generally important to have the current version of DirectX installed to avoid any conflicts. The current version, DirectX 10.0, will typically run programs that once required DirectX 8, DirectX 9, or any previous version. However, this is not the case the other way around. If you have something that requires DirectX 10.0, you will have to upgrade Windows. Sometimes you may not realize that the DirectX needs to be updated. However, there are errors and programs you may encounter with older releases of the software. When trying to run a program, if you can errors about the system not being able to locate or  initialize a file, failing to start, or performing an illegal operation, it could be due to you running an old version of DirectX. Poor quality video and/or sound playback is a strong indicator that there is an incompatibilty in your DirectX version and the program trying to display the multimedia.

You can check to see which version of DirectX by going to Start>Run. Type in dxdiag in the text box and press Enter. The DirectX diagnostic tool will launch and you can now see what version of DirectX you are currently have installed on your Windows system.  If you are running Windows Vista then DirectX 10.0 is what you should have installed. If not you can go here, http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/AboutGFW/Pages/DirectX10.aspx, to get the latest version. If you are running Windows XP, then you should have DirectX 9.0c installed. If not go here, http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en, to download the latest version.