DirectX will no longer be a mystery: this way you can know what version you have on your computer and thus you can update it

Surely on more than one occasion you have heard of DirectX, especially if you use your PC as a means to access your favorite video games. DirectX, that complement that is necessary every time we are going to install a game and that since its arrival with Windows 95 has seen versions and versions go by

But do you really know what DirectX is for? How to know what version you use or how to update? This is the objective of this article. Clear up the unknowns surrounding DirectX, a basic Microsoft development to be able to install games on our PC.

DirectX without mysteries

Without further ado and getting to the point, DirectX is a set of instructions that Windows has. A series of APIs available to developers to allow the game to access the computer's hardware quickly and directly.

Since the Windows 95 version, DirectX has been progressively updated adapting to the needs and requirements at all times, either both by the evolution of software and hardware. Each version that reaches the market does so by providing new possibilities and technologies that are taken advantage of by the new titles that hit the stores.

DirectX has a clear and unique objective: to make it possible for a video game to work correctly when installing it on our computerThat each and every one of the titles be compatible with a version of DirectX so that they can take advantage of the full potential of the current Windows.

When we install DirectX what we do is install a kind of interface that allows two different programs or two applications to communicate with each other It facilitates the work of the developers, eliminating the workload on their backs by making the integration of the game with the operating system easier. When a title is released, it arrives optimized for Windows and a version of DirectX.

In fact, you will see that in the requirements of each game, before when they were sold in physical format they came in the boxes, the version of DirectX necessary for the title to appear works In fact, during the installation process, the game performs a check to determine that we have a compatible version of DirectX so that it can work correctly on Windows.

Know which version of DirectX you are using

We already know what the objective of DirectX is and surely at this time you are curious to know what is the version you have installed on your PC . A very easy process to carry out.

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To find out which version of DirectX you are using, just type in the search box of the Start menu the command dxdiag with which we are going to access the diagnostic tool."

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After a brief warning message, where we click on Yes, a new window called dxdiag opens on which we click and we will see then as we enter an application called DirectX Diagnostic Tool."

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With several tabs, we look at the one that bears the name of System and we scroll through the screen until we see a section with the title DirectX version: here the mystery is revealed and you can see what version of DirectX you have installed. A version that may be old, not compatible with recent titles. Tap update."

Update DirectX

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Don&39;t panic, because updating DirectX on our PC is very easy You just have to download the Web Runtime Installer DirectX end-user guide that you can find at this link. You will see how a button appears, Download, on which you must click to start the process."

Once downloaded, we run the application and we do it with administrator permissions. The process again guides us step by step and between the steps we can decide whether to install the Bing bar or not (I say no).

At the end of the process we see how the latest version of DirectX is installed replacing the one we have installed and then offering compatibility with the games most recent. In case of having the latest version, we will see a notice that tells us that the update is not proceeding as it has a version equal to or higher than the one we can download.

Now, it's another thing if our hardware is compatible, but that's another story.