14 DAY TRIAL // In the middle of an increasing controversy related to the exclusive association of DirectX 10 and Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista, along with limiting platform choices in the gaming environment, the Redmond company announced fresh new and updated downloads for its line of DirectX offerings. As early as 2005, Microsoft revealed the direction it would take with the next-generation of graphics technology in Windows Vista. And the company remained loyal to that strategy, dropping backward compatibility with DirectX 9.0c and previous versions.
Additionally Microsoft has also introduced gaming titles designed especially for DirectX 10. Halo 2 and Shadowrun are just two such examples. Microsoft revealed that it could neither backport DirectX 10 to previous editions of the Windows platform, not could it design the games to run on DirectX 9.0c. Independent initiatives such as the Falling Leaf Systems announced projects to deliver Vista only titles to Windows XP. According to the latest reports, hacking group Warez has managed to crack both Halo 2 and Shadowrun and to make a patch available that would permit users to install and run the games on Windows XP.
Microsoft has chosen not to comment in any manner such scenarios and on June 26 delivered a collection of DirectX related downloads. The DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer, DirectX Software Development Kit, DirectX Software Developer Kit - Symbol Files (June 2007) and DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2007) are all available for download, the first only for Windows XP, while the latter three also offer compatibility for Vista.
The DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer is the latest update for all previous versions of DirectX 9.0c. The DirectX Software Development Kit will enable developers to build DirectX compliant applications in C/C++ and C#. The DirectX Software Developer Kit - Symbol Files (June 2007) brings to the table all the symbol files associated with the DirectX SDK for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. And of course, the DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2007) delivers DirectX end-user redistributable created especially for inclusion with third-party software products.