Microsoft DirectX® is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms.

Once the installation process finished, there is nothing left for us to do. However we can access advanced options by clicking on the Start menu -> run -> dxdiag.

No sooner the DirectX Diagnostic Tool window opens, several tabs will appear enabling us to set up, enable of disable advanced audio and video features. The tool also reports if any problems are detected.

In this screen we have several options: In the first tab called system several data about our system is shown, such as operative system, Bios, Processor, Memory, and most importantly, the DirectX version installed on the system.

The second tab DirectX Files displays the list of files installed on your system, showing their version and possible troubleshooting.

Display is next. Apart from showing all the information about the display driver and hardware manufacturer, this tab allows us to enable and disable DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP Texture Acceleration. Moreover, we can test DirectDraw and Direct3D API to ensure they work properly.

In case the image appears with errors, blurry or want to exit the test, just hit Esc.

Sound - similar to Display s- enables us to test the DirectSound API and disable or move a notch the Hardware Acceleration level in case some games of applications don’t work properly.

Music - Music is for establishing parameters linked to DirectMusic. In this tab Music Ports are displayed with information about each of them, enabling you to Test them individually.

From the last three tabs, we will only take into account Network, which is the only one with some modifiable options and it’s essential because of gaming online modes. Once we set up all the network devices, we can test DirectPlay to ensure that everything works as intended.