Where do you usually have your DirectX SDK folder?

The “DirectX Runtime” is part of the OS, not the “DirectX SDK”. For a very long time, the DirectX SDK was what you downloaded and installed so a developer could get the headers, libraries and tools to write DirectX apps. That all changed in late 2010 when the DirectX SDK was deprecated and the core headers, libraries, and tools were integrated into the Windows SDK version 8.

See Where is the DirectX SDK? and Not So DirectSetup.

Unfortunately, most of the DirectX 11 tutorials and books were written for the old DirectX SDK and never updated for the Windows SDK. They often make use of D3DX11 which is now deprecated (see Living without D3DX for a list of replacements) and either D3DXMath or XNAMath which have both been replaced by DirectXMath.

The best way to get started with DirectX 11 development today is to install Visual Studio 2015 Community, Professional, or a higher edition. For C++ development, you need to add C++ via the custom install which will also add the Windows 8.1 SDK. Then, go check out the DirectX Tool Kit and it’s tutorials. Once you have the basics down, you can go revisit those older tutorials and should be able to follow along using newer tech.

Alternatively, you can install the legacy DirectX SDK and set VS 2012/2013/2015 to use it, but there are a few caveats. First, there’s some known issues installing the legacy DirectX SDK. Second, the include & library path order is inverted. Really there’s only a few cases where you actually need the old DirectX SDK and for Windows 8 you don’t need it. See The Zombie DirectX SDK.

BTW, I hope you are using Windows 8.1 and not Windows 8.0 as Windows 8.0 is no longer supported. See this FAQ.

I’ve cleaned up a lot of the old DirectX SDK samples so they don’t require the legacy DirectX SDK. You can find them on GitHub.

See also DirectX SDKs of a certain age and DirectX SDK Tools Catalog.

With all that said, the default install location for the legacy DirectX SDK is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010) on a 64-bit system or C:\Program Files\Microsoft DirectX SDK (June 2010) on a 32-bit system.

UPDATE:: While it is still a good idea to avoid the legacy D3DX9, D3DX10, and/or D3DX11 utility libraries for new projects, there is now a simpler method for using them that avoids the need to install the legacy DirectX SDK or to rely on the legacy “DirectX End-User Runtime” packages to deploy them. Just use the Microsoft.DXSDK.D3DX NuGet package. See this blog post for more details.

Related Posts:

  1. Dependency Walker: missing dlls
  2. Why is “MINGW64” appearing on my Git bash?
  3. Using %PROGRAMFILES(x86)% on Windows OS 32bit
  4. how to get program files x86 env variable?
  5. A fatal error occurred while creating a TLS client credential. The internal error state is 10013
  6. What are good grep tools for Windows? [closed]
  7. How to list files in windows using command prompt (cmd). I’ve tried using ‘ ls ‘ as in Linux but it shows an error?
  8. Can’t connect to MySQL server on ‘localhost’ (10061) after Installation
  9. ow can I find where Python is installed on Windows?
  10. Setting Windows PowerShell environment variables
  11. Can’t connect to MySQL server on ‘localhost’ (10061) after Installation
  12. Why is Windows 32-bit called Windows x86 and not Windows x32?
  13. How to run a PowerShell script
  14. How can I open a cmd window in a specific location?
  15. Python 3.2 Unable to import urllib2 (ImportError: No module named urllib2)
  16. How to solve “The directory is not empty” error when running rmdir command in a batch script?
  17. what is a “dump file” in windows task manager?
  18. Python 3.2 Unable to import urllib2 (ImportError: No module named urllib2)
  19. How do I run Redis on Windows?
  20. Need to navigate to a folder in command prompt
  21. Using putty to scp from windows to Linux
  22. ‘npm’ is not recognized as internal or external command, operable program or batch file
  23. how to open an mp3 file with c
  24. What languages are Windows, Mac OS X and Linux written in?
  25. Command Prompt “Net View System Error 6118”
  26. git clone: Authentication failed for
  27. How to compile LEX/YACC files on Windows?
  28. Python command not working in command prompt
  29. Batch script loop
  30. Command ‘ls’ not working in command prompt
  31. openssh windows bad owner or permissions
  32. What is the default password for Postgres
  33. “X does not name a type” error in C++
  34. Windows Activator .bat Text
  35. how to edit or see the source code for dll files
  36. PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied python using moviepy to write gif
  37. Text editor to open big (giant, huge, large) text files
  38. PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied python using moviepy to write gif
  39. Xampp MySQL not starting – “Attempting to start MySQL service…”
  40. Visual C++ executable and missing MSVCR100d.dll
  41. Python 3.2 Unable to import urllib2 (ImportError: No module named urllib2)
  42. What is the ASCII Code of ½?
  43. Docker for Windows error: “Hardware assisted virtualization and data execution protection must be enabled in the BIOS”
  44. Why Local Users and Groups is missing in Computer Management on Windows 10 Home?
  45. How to force `findstr` to ignore `Cannot open` returns
  46. Npm Please try using this command again as root/administrator
  47. Choosing a Windows automation scripting language. AutoIt vs Autohotkey
  48. “python” not recognized as a command
  49. sudo command not found on Cygwin
  50. What is Windows Fabric and how to host services in it?
  51. starting R: Error: ‘\U’ used without hex digits in character string starting “”C:\U”
  52. What is Windows Fabric and how to host services in it?
  53. npm ERR! No git binary found in $PATH
  54. How to run PowerShell in CMD
  55. How to open an elevated cmd using command line for Windows?
  56. xcopy returns error “Invalid number of parameters” when exclude parameter is set
  57. SVN admin management GUI tool
  58. ‘openssl’ is not recognized as internal or external command
  59. docker error : the input device is not a TTY. If you are using mintty, try prefixing the command with ‘winpty’
  60. cat not recognised as an internal or external command
  61. How to grant permission to users for a directory using command line in Windows?
  62. Curl not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file
  63. Making a countdown timer in C++
  64. Is there a Pattern Matching Utility like GREP in Windows?
  65. Redirecting Output from within Batch file
  66. How to send a simple email from a Windows batch file?
  67. How can I run a program from a batch file without leaving the console open after the program starts?
  68. What exactly is the scope of Access Violation ‘0xc0000005’?
  69. How do you clear the console screen in C?
  70. How can I do GUI programming in C?
  71. What is %0|%0 and how does it work?
  72. What does /p mean in set /p?
  73. Why do fonts appear jagged in Chrome?
  74. batch file from scheduled task returns code 2147942401
  75. How does the echo command works in batch programming
  76. Visual Studio compiles but the exe isn’t there
  77. CALL command vs. START with /WAIT option
  78. BAT file to map to network drive without running as admin
  79. Aliases in Windows command prompt
  80. Docker hv-sock proxy (vsudd) is not reachable windows
  81. How do I use spaces in the Command Prompt?
  82. how to open Jupyter notebook in chrome on windows
  83. Calling dir in cmd prints out: “Volume in drive C has no label.”
  84. Difference between $? and $LastExitCode in PowerShell
  85. How to use/install GNU binutils (objdump)
  86. How to use random in BATCH script?
  87. How do I force Robocopy to overwrite files?
  88. In which cases does program exit with 0x40010004 code?
  89. Sublime Text from Command Line
  90. Windows batch – concatenate multiple text files into one
  91. What is the difference between \ and \\ in file path
  92. The requested operation cannot be performed on a file with a user-mapped section open
  93. Using %PROGRAMFILES(x86)% on Windows OS 32bit
  94. “NODE_ENV” is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable command or batch file
  95. HyperV is not available on Home editions
  96. Batch command for ImageMagick to convert all files in a directory and sub-directories on windows
  97. What’s a good (free) visual merge tool for Git? (on windows)
  98. how to empty recyclebin through command prompt?
  99. php exec() is not executing the command
  100. You require permission from “Myself” to delete folder – how to fix

Leave a Comment