Is Microsoft DirectX@11 compatible with Win XP

[joycie]

An error message from Windows Media Player prompted me to google and realise that I need to update Microsoft DirectX.

I am currently using Windows XP and Microsoft Direct X@9

The lastest Microsoft DirectX is version 11.

I would appreciate if someone could advise if Microsoft DirectX@11 is compatible with Windows XP?

Many thanks in advance.

[jscheuer1]

It doesn't come right out and say it, but it looks like it's an innovation made possible by Windows 7 and at that, with certain hardware (monitor, graphics card, possibly other) only.

If you follow the link, and start the process, at some point it will probably tell you that you need to update to Windows 7 and/or need hardware upgrades.

Did you ever try to update to Microsoft Direct X@10? If so and you couldn't under your current config, then 11 would most likely not be possible either.

[joycie]

Many thanks to John for your kind response.
After seeing your advice, I googled and found the following information from Microsoft.
I think I will have to find other ways to see why my Windows Media Player is not working.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee416788(VS.85).aspx#Will_DirectX_10_be_available_for_Windows_XP

Will DirectX 10 be available for Windows XP?
No. Windows Vista, which has DirectX 10, includes an updated DirectX runtime based on the runtime in Windows XP SP2 (DirectX 9.0c) with changes to work with the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) and the new audio driver stack, and with other updates in the operating system. In addition to Direct3D 9, Windows Vista supports two new interfaces when the correct video hardware and drivers are present: Direct3D9Ex and Direct3D10.

Since these new interfaces rely on the WDDM technology, they will never be available on earlier versions of Windows. All the other changes made to DirectX technologies for Windows Vista are also specific to the new version of Windows. The name DirectX 10 is misleading in that many technologies shipping in the DirectX SDK (XACT, XINPUT, D3DX) are not encompassed by this version number. So, referring to the version number of the DirectX runtime as a whole has lost much of its meaning, even for 9.0c. The DirectX Diagnostic Tool (DXdiag.exe) on Windows Vista does report DirectX 10, but this really only refers to Direct3D 10.

Will DirectX 11 be available for Windows Vista or Windows XP?
DirectX 11 is built into Windows 7, and it is available as an update for Windows Vista (see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=160189). This includes the Direct3D 11 API, DirectX Graphics Infrastructure (DXGI) 1.1, 10Level9 feature levels, Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP) 10 software rendering device, Direct2D, DirectWrite, and an update to the Direct3D 10.1 API to support 10Level9 and WARP 10.For the same reasons noted in the preceding question (Will DirectX 10 be available for Windows XP?), Direct3D 11 and related APIs are not available on Windows XP.

[jscheuer1]

Sounds like you may have updated to a version of Windows Media Player that's incompatible with your OS.

If so, you need to uninstall it, perhaps also find its application data folder and delete that too. Then find the version that's compatible with XP and install that.

[joycie]

Thanks John for your kind response.

I have downloaded WMP verion 11 quite a while ago and it has been working fine previously.
Now, I could not open my VCD "DAT" video file with WMP and my video editing software(which was working fine previously too).

But I could still open the "DAT" video file with VLC Player and VirtualDub.

I'd like to fix the problem so that I could continue using the video editing software which I bought a while ago.

The Windows Media Player error message Web Help prompted me to the page below:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/webhelp/default.aspx?&mpver=11.0.5721.5280&id=C00D11B1&contextid=83&originalid=80040241

I have done the following steps :
Downloaded all the Microsoft Windows Updates
Checked using the instructions provided to confirm that all the Audio devices are working properly.

Would appreciate if you or anyone could advise further.
Thank you.

[jscheuer1]

I feel uncomfortable recommending any specific action at this time, because you're adding in new elements to the issue.

That said consider these aspects of the issue:


Is this an issue with all video that Media Player supports, or just some?

If just some, then it's probably the format of the video that's the problem and you may have to update your OS or get a new computer to deal with this format.

If Media Player doesn't work at all, not even with - say .mp3, then you probably at some point updated Media Player beyond what your system is capable of. Or performed an update incompletely.

But since, as you say, there have been several updates at this point, it would be hard to pin down which if any is responsible for the current error, which may or may not be exactly the same error as the original one that caused you to try updating Media Player.

That's why I said you may need to uninstall Media Player and perhaps wipe out its application data folder and then install the original Media Player that came with XP.

But, at that point I didn't know there was a third party video editing program involved. Perhaps you can get some support from them, or from a forum on their site. Do they have an update?

If you have restore points from before this became an issue, you might be able to use one of those. But if this is a problem specific to only certain video files, that probably won't help.

As I say though, I'm uncertain which if any of these approaches would be best. If it were me, I'd try investigating each one as much as feasible and then decide on one, backup whatever I have just in case things get worse, and try implementing the solution I'd chosen.

[joycie]

Thank you so much for your patience and thorough response, John
Greatly appreciate your assistance.

I have just checked, my WMP has no problem with all other file formats -- wma, wmv, mp3...

I will investigate further next week...
Hopefully can resolve the problem.

[jscheuer1]

I had another thought. Have you done a Google search on the exact error code you are getting? Like word for word, just paste that into the search engine. Doing that will often get you a bunch of stuff that doesn't apply, but if you sift through it you might find what you're looking for.

A little known fact about Google is that you can use quotes around certain parts of the search term to make sure that the words in the quotes appear in that exact order. And a + sign may be used to make sure a certain part or parts are in the response. Like - say your string was:


ERROR VCD DAT file cannot be loaded #52384

You could do your search on:


+"ERROR VCD DAT file cannot be loaded" #52384

and that phrase in that order must appear in each response.