Why do steam games install directx

Home Discussions Workshop Market Broadcasts. Change language. Install Steam. OK, so the last 3 games I bought, I cannot play. Thanks to Microsoft DirectX continually stuck on Step 1 of 2 install prior to game installation. I know why they have to install this before each game did the research , but how am I supposed to enjoy anything I buy on Steam?

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. Game developers have to target an exact version of the Direct3D helper library. It needs version 40, and only that file will do. Microsoft has also chosen not to bundle these Direct3D library files with Windows itself, either. Even Direct3D libraries created before Windows 10 was released, for example, are not all included with Windows They have to be installed by an application that needs them.

It even gets more complicated than that. Different applications depend on different versions of the libraries and you need to have many different versions installed. Okay, so every game has to install the exact minor version of the DirectX libraries it requires. Games run the DirectX installer, often in the background, which installs any required libraries and repairs any problems on the system. The DirectX installer is also the only way Microsoft allows developers to distribute these files.

Of course, not all games actually have to run the DirectX installer when you first launch them. If you start removing library files, applications could break. Leave them alone!

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