DirectX Diagnostic Tool (DxDiag) is a diagnostics tool used to test

DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct", ...

functionality and troubleshoot video- or sound-related hardware problems. DirectX Diagnostic can save text files with the scan results. These files are often posted in tech

forum Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to: Common uses * Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example *Internet ...

s or attached to support emails in order to give support personnel a better idea of the PC the requester is using in case the error is due to a hardware failure or incompatibility. DirectX Diagnostic Tool is located in . Starting from

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

, DirectX Diagnostic Tool only shows information; it is no longer possible to test the hardware and the various DirectX components.XNA Framework Goals

Functions

The System tab displays the current DirectX version, the computer's hostname, the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

's version, information on the system

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...

, and other data. The DirectX Files tab displays information about the versions of specific DirectX system files, which are portable executables or

dynamic-link libraries Dynamic-link library (DLL) is Microsoft's implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems. These libraries usually have the file extension DLL, OCX (for libraries containing ActiveX controls), o ...

(DLLs). DirectX Diagnostic Tool displays information about the current display settings and the video hardware on the Display tab. If the computer has more than one monitor, then DirectX Diagnostic Tool will display a separate tab for each monitor. This tab can disable DirectDraw,

Direct3D Direct3D is a graphics application programming interface (API) for Microsoft Windows. Part of DirectX, Direct3D is used to render three-dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D uses hardware a ...

, and/or AGP Texture Acceleration for troubleshooting purposes. If the installed display driver has passed

Windows Hardware Quality Labs Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

testing, DirectX Diagnostic Tool will display this result on the right side of the window. The Music tab displays information about the computer's

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...

settings, and lists different music-related

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

and hardware on your computer. The Input tab, displays information about input devices installed in the computer such as

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

and

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. It will also attempt to detect problems with these devices. DirectX Diagnostic Tool also displays information about the installed

DirectPlay DirectPlay is part of Microsoft's DirectX API. It is a network communication library intended for computer game development, although it can be used for other purposes. DirectPlay is a high-level software interface between applications and commun ...

Service Provider. It is possible to create chat rooms with DirectX Diagnostic Tool that can be accessed by other computers, as long as anyone attempting to join knows the IP address of the host computer. In Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Vista x64 edition, Windows 7 x64 edition, Windows 8 x64 edition and Windows 10 x64 edition, two versions of DirectX Diagnostic Tool are included, a native 64-bit version and a 32-bit version. In Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Vista x64 edition and Windows 7 x64 edition, the 32-bit version of DirectX Diagnostic Tool is run by default.

References

{{Microsoft Windows components Utilities for Windows Windows-only software DirectX