Microsoft DirectX Control Panel

Microsoft DirectX Control Panel (directx.cpl) is a Control Panel applet from the Microsoft DirectX SDK that gives access to the settings of DirectX directly from your Control Panel. It was designed mainly for game and multimedia developers, who use it to switch DirectX components between the retail and debug runtimes and to choose how much debug output they produce. Once the file has been placed in the Windows System32 folder, a DirectX item appears in the Control Panel. You'll be able to see and adjust the settings not just for DirectX, but also for DirectDraw, DirectSound, DirectShow, DirectMusic, DirectInput, DirectPlay and Direct3D.

Features:

• Shows the installed DirectX version and starts the DirectX Diagnostic Tool (DxDiag)
• Switches Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectInput, DirectMusic and DirectSound between the retail and debug runtimes
• Sets the debug output level for each component, from fewer to more messages
• Lists DirectMusic ports and offers DirectInput keyboard and mouse emulation for debugging
• The whole applet is a single directx.cpl file of about 132 KB

Microsoft DirectX Control Panel lets developers switch DirectX components between retail and debug runtimes from one place.

If you develop or debug DirectX applications, Microsoft DirectX Control Panel helps you see more of what your code is doing. The debug runtime performs extra validation of the parameters passed by your application and prints diagnostic messages to the debug output, which makes errors easier to find, while the retail runtime is the normal, faster version used by players. Switching to the debug runtime requires the debug files installed with the DirectX SDK. You simply open the DirectX item in your Control Panel and choose the options on each tab. The applet is free and was distributed with the DirectX SDK; the version shown here dates from 2004 and targets DirectX 9, so it is mainly useful for older DirectX 9 projects. Debug settings for newer versions of Direct3D are handled by other Microsoft tools, such as the DirectX Control Panel of the Windows SDK and D3DConfig. It is not a video card settings panel and does not change game performance for ordinary users.