Missing dll file error in DirectX
DirectX is a set of libraries that allows programs installed in the Windows operating system to interact with the video and audio hardware of the device. This set of libraries allows you to use the features integrated in the hardware of your device more efficiently, which improves the performance of the programs that make use of it, especially video games.
Sometimes when we try to run a program that uses DirectX, we are shown an error message that alerts us about the lack of a missing dll file, which prevents it from running. For these cases, most of the articles consulted recommend reinstalling DirectX to solve this problem. In this article we will guide you how to restore missing DirectX dll file without reinstalling this set of libraries.
How to restore a missing DirectX DLL file
Below are the steps required to restore a missing individual DirectX dll file:
- If you do not have the DirectX installer, you must download it:
- In the search field of the Microsoft website enter the search criteria DirectX.
- Within the search results select the link Download DirectX End-User Runtimes(MM YY) to get the latest version based on the release date.
- Then select the option Download. The downloaded installer works for Windows versions: 10, 8, 7 and XP.
- Create a new temporary folder on your desktop to copy the dll file to in the replacement process. Choose the name you are going to give the folder and press Get in.
- Run the DirectX installer you downloaded or the one you already have on your computer. Select Yes to accept the software license agreement.
- Press the button Examine in the dialog.
- Select the temporary folder you created in Step 2 and select Accept.
- When the selected folder appears in the selections dialog Accept. DirectX Setup will extract all your files to the selected folder.
- When the file extraction process is finished, open the previously selected folder. Within it you will find a large number of files with the extension .cab, DLL files and an executable dxsetup.exe.
- To find the file with the extension .cab that contains the DLL file you are looking for you will need to search for the name of the same content in the name of one of the files. For example, if you need the file d3dx9_24.dll, you can find it in inside the file Feb2005_d3dx9_24_x86.cab.
- You should keep in mind that each of these files have two versions: one 32-bit and one 64-bit, select the one that is according to the version of your operating system. Files for 32-bit systems end in _x86 and 64-bit system files end in _x64. Once the correct file is located open it by double clicking.
- inside the file .cab look for the file with extension .dll and copy it to another folder.
- Then select the file copied in the previous step and copy it to the folder C:WindowsSystem32. If the error message specified another location where the DLL was missing, copy the file to it.
- Delete the copy of the DLL file made in Step 10 and delete the folder with the extracted DirectX files.
- Lastly, restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
After completing all the previous steps, run the program that reported the missing dll error again to verify that the error has been resolved. If the errors persist, it is recommended to reinstall the DirectX library, to do this carry out the previous steps up to Step 6 and then run dxsetup.exe.