The DirectX runtime consists of core components and optional components. For more details on the current state of the DirectX SDK, see Where is the DirectX SDK?, and the blog post Not So Direct Setup. Using the legacy DirectX SDK requires the use of the deprecated DirectSetup for components such as D3DX9, D3DX10, D3DX11, XAudio 2.7, XInput 1.3, and XACT. It’s a faster and smarter alternative to installing the whole DirectX Redistributable package.The legacy DirectX SDK is at end-of-life, but it's still available in order to support old games, tutorials, and projects. In conclusion, DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer makes it very easy to grab the latest version of DirectX. Moreover, it’s an effortless operation for the end-user. This is, in fact, the whole purpose of this package – minimizing installation time. The whole process doesn’t take more than a few minutes, way faster than a complete DirectX deployment. It all ends with a cleanup operation of the DirectX installation (removes obsolete files). It features a smart engine that allows it to first analyze the current DirectX installation, retrieve a list of all available files from Microsoft’s servers, compare the data against local items, grab the non-existent updates on your computer and deploy the newest ones. However, there’s no harm in running DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer.

You can either run the dxdiag utility (from the run command) or use the DirectX Version Checker, an application that aside from verifying the version of the DirectX installation, also informs you about DirectX Debug Levels, DirectShow Filters and DirectInput Devices. If you’re not sure you need a DirectX update, there are two simple ways of checking that. On the downside, it may cause some discomfort to users with an unreliable network connection.

The upside of the updater is that it extracts data dynamically, grabbing only the files that your computer lacks in order to be up-to-date. Unlike the latter, the application requires an Internet connection, as it downloads content from Microsoft’s servers, with the advantage of being smaller in size. DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer is Microsoft’s updater for the 9.0c and previous versions of DirectX Redistributable.

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