Direct3D D3DX DLLs

From Windows XP users who keep their machines up to date should all have DirectX 9.0c installed and likewise Vista uses will have DirectX 10 and Windows 7 and Windows 10 users DirectX 11 and 12. However the D3DX dlls (and sometimes others like XAudio) usedto get updated every few months (when a new SDK was released) and so many users got errors about missing d3dx9_xx.dll. The best solution was to distribute the DirectX runtime with your app. You could also of course just include the dll. although this is against the agreement (EULA) and may cause problems. Another solution is to forward users to the Microsoft DirectX end user runtime download via the Microsoft Web Installer

Download the missing DLLs

Note: these installers will not install DirectX 9.0c, they will only install the missing dlls from the SDK updates. Most people should have DirectX 9.0c as part of Windows XP SP2 or later OS but if you do not you can get it via the online Microsoft update page here: Microsoft Web Installer

2005 to 2010

Name	Installs DLL	Download sites
February 2005 Update	d3dx9_24.dll	DirectX 9.0c End-User Runtime
April 2005 Update	d3dx9_25.dll
June 2005 Update	d3dx9_26.dll
August 2005 Update	d3dx9_27.dll
October 2005 Update	No change
December 2005 Update	d3dx9_28.dll
February 2006 Update	d3dx9_29.dll x3daudio1_0.dll
April 2006 Update	d3dx9_30.dll xinput1_1.dll
June 2006 Update	No change
August 2006 Update	xinput1_2.dll
October 2006 Update	d3dx9_31.dll xinput1_3.dll x3daudio1_1.dll
December 2006 Update	d3dx9_32.dll
February 2007 Update	No change
April 2007 Update	d3dx9_33.dl d3dx10_33.dlll
June 2007 Update	d3dx9_34.dll d3dx10_34.dll
August 2007 Update	d3dx9_35.dll d3dx10_35.dll
November 2007 Update	d3dx9_36.dll d3dx10_36.dll X3DAudio1_2.dll
March 2008 Update	d3dx9_37.dll d3dx10_37.dll X3DAudio1_3.dll XAudio2_0.dll
June 2008 Update	d3dx9_38.dll d3dx10_38.dll X3DAudio1_4.dll XAudio2_1.dll xactengine3_1.dll XAPO_FX1_0.dll
August 2008 Update	d3dx9_39.dll d3dx10_39.dll XAudio2_2.dll xactengine3_2.dll XAPO_FX1_1.dll
November 2008 Update	d3dx9_40.dll d3dx10_40.dll X3DAudio1_5.dll XAudio2_3.dll xactengine3_3.dll XAPO_FX1_2.dll
March 2009 Update	d3dx9_41.dll d3dx10_41.dll X3DAudio1_6.dll XAudio2_4.dll XactEngine3_4.dll XAPOFX1_3.dll
August 2009 Update	d3dx9_42.dll d3dx10_43.dll d3dx11_42.dll XAudio2_5.dll XactEngine3_5.dll d3dcsx_42.dll
February 2010 Update	d3dx9_43.dll d3dx11_43.dll XAudio2_6.dll XactEngine3_6.dll X3DAudio1_7.dll XAPOFX1_4.dll
June 2010 Update (last SDK release)	XAudio2_7.dll XactEngine3_7.dll XAPOFX1_5.dll

After 2010

In 2010 Microsoft changed how it updated DirectX and instead of a separate SDK for developers and a runtime distribution for end users it was made a part of the Platform SDK. This means that new versions of DirectX are linked to platform updates e.g. a change in windows version or a service pack release. For end users the DirectX files should be installed automatically but if not see this page for manual installation of DirectX: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/179113. In addition Microsoft stopped developing DirectX9 and the d3dx extensions and concentrated on more pure graphics library firstly with DirectX 11 and now with 12.

Name	Installs DLL	Download sites
DirectX SDK moves into the platform SDK for Windows . End users should get the runtime automatically, developers need to download the Platform SDK. DirectX 11.0		Update for Windows Vista
DirectX 11.1		Update for Windows 7 SP1
DirectX 11.2	XInput1_4.dll	Should be part of Windows 8.1 and later. For manual installation see: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/179113
DirectX 11.3 and DirectX 12		Included in Windows 10.

Note: if you are missing d3dx9d_xx.dll files e.g. d3dx9d_43.dll these files are debug versions of the libraries for development purposes only. Nobody should be distributing these in an application. To use these you need the full developers DirectX SDK (mow part of the platform SDK)..

What the files are

The d3dx9_?.dll files are for the Direct3D Extensions (D3DX) for Direct3D 9. These provide helper functions for graphic code.

The d3dx10 dlls are Vista dlls for Direct3D 11.
The d3dx11 dlls are Windows 7 dlls for Direct3D 11

The xinput dlls are for the Microsoft common controller library and are used for things like the Xbox 360 common controller. For a full description of the various version see here: XInput versions
XAudio2 is the low level audio API for Windows and Xbox 360
XACT (XactEngine) is the Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool. This is the high level tool for sound designers.
X3DAudio is an API that works with XAudio2 and XACT to position sounds in 3D space
XAPO provides digital signal processing operations on audio streams (working with XAudio2 and XACT) e.g. adding reverb