To get the maximum performance of applications or video games on your PC, you must update DirectX in your Windows Operating System. Since through this collection of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the programs that you want to run on your Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10, will have the appropriate optimization for their operation. Therefore, following a few steps, you will see how to update DirectX to its latest version.
Check DirectX version
To carry out the update process, the first thing you should do is check the version of DirectX that is installed on your computer. To do this, follow these steps:
- Press the key combination “Windows + R” or select “Start”.
- In the “Run” window type the command “dxdiag”.
- Then the “DirectX Diagnostic Tool” window will open.
- In the “System information” section, you can see all the information on your PC.
- At the bottom of this section you will see the version of DirectX that your computer has.
Update to the latest version
After checking your computer’s version of DirectX, you must proceed with the update that best suits your PC’s version of the Operating System. To update DirectX to its latest version, do the following:
- Enter the following link.
- Then select the language and press “Download”.
- After downloading the file, run it and continue with the installation.
- In the installation window, accept the license terms and press “Next”.
- In the next step, disable installing Bing Bar. Choose “Next.”
- Finally the latest version of DirectX will be installed on your Windows system.
Note: Through Windows Update, you can also download updates that are available for the version of Windows that you have. To enter you just have to press the “Windows” or “Start” key, and in the search bar type Windows Update.
Versions updated by Operating System
According to the version of Windows that your computer has, the different compatible versions of DirectX by Windows Operating System will be shown :
Windows 10 and Server 2016 Technical Preview
DirectX 11.3 and 12 are the versions that fit the Windows 10 system. Updates for those versions can be found on Windows Update.
Windows 8, RT, 8.1, Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2
For Windows 8, RT and Windows Server 2012 version DirectX 11.1 is available. Whose version can only be installed via Windows Update. While DirectX 11.2 is built into Windows 8.1 , RT , 8.1 , and Windows Server 2012 R2 .
Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2
The built-in version of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 is DirectX 11.0. While DirectX 11.1 is the version available for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 RS SP1. Although there is no separate update package for these versions, you can update DirectX for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 (KB2670838) using the following link.
Windows Vista and Server 2008
DirectX 10 is the version that corresponds to Windows Vista. While version 10.1 is integrated with Windows Vista SP1. For Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2, DirectX 11 is available. If you want to update the DirectX versions mentioned above, you should go to the following link KB971512.
Windows XP and Server 2003
For its part, in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the corresponding version is DirectX 9.0c. To update this version in the Windows systems mentioned, you only have to access the following link.
Now that you know the steps to follow to update the DirectX version on your Windows system, all the multimedia applications, video games and programs that require recent updates on your computer will enjoy optimal performance and without system errors.
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