How to Uninstall DirectX and Reinstall to Repair DirectX

If you ask me how to uninstall Internet Explorer in Windows, I wouldn’t advice you to do that because IE is part of Windows and some feature requires IE present or else it’d crash or give you some weird problems. The same goes to 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. Simply put, DirectX is a Windows technology that enables higher performance in graphics and sound when you’re playing games or watching video on your PC. Even if you CAN uninstall DirectX, I guarantee you that you’d face problems on your computer.

I tried uninstalling DirectX and the first thing I noticed was when trying to launch Windows Live Messenger, I got an error “This application has filed to start because DSOUND.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.” I did a little searching and found that dsound.dll is a DirectX DLL which adds functionality for Direct Sound. When I logged in to Hotmail, the screen and advertisements just kept on flashing. As for computer games, I am sure those games that rely on DirectX wouldn’t run.

So if you have problems when trying to play a game and know that it had to do with DirectX, I’d suggest you to download the latest version of DirectX and perform a reinstallation. However, if reinstallation fails, your last resort would be to uninstall DirectX and then try installing again. Here’s how to uninstall DirectX.

Do take note that after removing DirectX from your computer, you won’t be able to reinstall DirectX. If you try running dxwebsetup.exe, you’d get the error “An internal system error occurred. Please refer to DXError.log and DirectX.log in your Windows folder to determine the problem.” Weirdly, both log files cannot be found in Windows directory. So what you need to do is to rollback original DirectX from Windows setup disc first, then only install and update DirectX to the latest version.

There are a few tools and scripts that I found which is able to help you uninstall DirectX or rollback to the original DirectX from Windows installation CD.

1. DirectX 9 Uninstaller

- This uninstaller uses your original XP or .NET CD to restore your original DirectX 8 files. Extract these files to C:\DXTEMP. You must extract these files to this directory and run the UnDx9.bat that uninstalls the DirectX files in SAFE MODE. This tool can only uninstall DirectX 9 from Windows XP.
[ Download DirectX 9 Uninstaller ]

2. DirectX Eradicator
- DirectX Eradicator is designed to safely remove the DirectX runtime core component from Windows operating systems. It gives you the power to install and uninstall any version of DirectX as you wish. DirectX Eradicator 2.0 supports full uninstall for DirectX 2.0 to 9.0c, complete removal of all DirectX files and folders, full registry cleanup and CD rollback option. There is no interface for this tool. Just run dxerad.exe, click Yes and reboot. After reboot, you will notice a new icon “DirectX Rollback Wizard” at desktop. To rollback to the original DirectX, launch the shortcut, click Yes and enter your Windows installation disc. Works Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003. Vista not supported.
[ Download DirectX Eradicator 2.0 ]

3. DirectX Buster

- DirectX Buster is a DirectX uninstaller for Windows 9X, ME and W2K. It uninstalls DirectX from version 5 up to version 9.x without any problems. This tool may also work properly on later DirectX versions (e.g. DirectX 10). This tool works only in older version of Windows. XP and Vista not supported.
[ Download DirectX Buster 2.1 Beta 4 Build 41 ]

4. DirectX Happy Uninstall

- DirectX Happy Uninstall(DHU) is a powerful management tool for Microsoft DirectX. Using DHU, you can BACKUP, RESTORE, DISC-ROLLBACK, and FULL INSTALL DirectX. A correct DirectX is necessary in your computer. DirectX Happy Uninstall support Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 x86 Edtion and also the latest DirectX 10.0! You can backup, restore, rollback, and perform full installation of DirectX with this tool. DHU is probably the most advanced and up-to-date DirectX uninstaller software but it is a shareware that cost $19.95. The latest version of DirectX Happy Uninstall is the only tool that can work on Vista and DirectX 10. I can only find a keygen for DirectX Happy Uninstall v3.97 but unfortunately v3.97 can only support Windows 2000/XP/2003 and DirectX 9.0c.
[ Download DirectX Happy Uninstall v3.97 | v4.15 ]