Okay, so every game has to install the exact minor version of the DirectX libraries it requires. But Why Does Every PC Game Have to Reinstall It? Different applications depend on different versions of the libraries and you need to have many different versions installed. There’s a good chance you have a lot of those installed on your system, too. This is similar to the situation with the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable libraries. RELATED: Why Are There So Many 'Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables' Installed on My PC? 32-bit games need the 32-bit versions of the library file, and 64-bit games need the 64-bit library. It needs version 40, and only that file will do. For example, if a game developer targeted their game at d3ddx10_40.dll, the game can’t use d3ddx10_41.dll. A more recent version of the library can’t be used. Game developers have to target an exact version of the Direct3D helper library. There isn’t just a single DirectX Direct3D library games depend on, or even just a handful. So if DirectX is a part of Windows, why do games even install it in the first place? The short answer is that DirectX installation is a mess. If It’s Included With Windows, Why Are Games Installing It?

When the DirectX Diagnostic Tool window appears, you’ll see the version number appear to the right of “DirectX Version” under “System Information”. You can check the version of DirectX available on your system by clicking the Start button, typing “dxdiag” into the search box, and pressing Enter. RELATED: How to Update DirectX on Windows 11 For example, a game written only for DirectX 11 wouldn’t run on Windows XP, where the latest available version is DirectX 9. When developers are developing games, they choose the DirectX versions they want to target. Windows 7 includes DirectX 11, and Windows 10 includes DirectX 12. Other non-game applications may use DirectX for features like 3D graphics. If they don’t, they use the cross-platform OpenGL or Vulkan APIs instead. Many games on Windows use DirectX’s Direct3D for graphics. It’s a group of APIs (application programming interfaces) developers can use for 3D graphics, video, multimedia, sound, and gamepad features on Windows.

Current directx version