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View Full Version : DirectX website: Windows XP now second-class citizen?

Adrian Lopez
05-12-2007, 12:44 PM
A link to the old DirectX website (www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/ (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/)) now redirects users to the DirectX 10 section of the Games for Windows (http://www.gamesforwindows.com/) website. That section of the website is currently just a blurb about DirectX 10 and doesn't contain any links to the DX9 end-user downloads. It appears that Windows XP is quickly becoming a second-class citizen.

How do you lead your players to the necessary DirectX runtime components?
Pyabo
05-12-2007, 03:55 PM
Microsoft has forgotten why they made DirectX in the first place.
RinkuHero
05-12-2007, 10:18 PM
You can still link them directly:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en

But yeah, weird.
ManuTOO
05-13-2007, 12:34 AM
Damn..! :eek:
I have about 20 times this URL, on my website and in my games :
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx?url=/windows/directx/downloads/
and even though there's "directx/downloads" in the URL, it's landing on the same page, without any download link... Damn M$ ! :(
jcottier
05-13-2007, 01:20 AM
> I have about 20 times this URL, on my website and in my games

To avoid this problem, I have a tiny html file on my main site:

get_directx.html for example.

This is how it look:

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="0; URL=http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en">
</head>
</html>


So, for every reference to DirectX, I just point to this link. I only need to update in one place.

I recommand you to do something similar for your 'BUY NOW' button/link. Just in case you want to change your ecommerce provider.

JC
tau
05-26-2007, 06:55 PM
Well, M$ is pushing their Vista, what can you say? They just force a non-tech-savvy users to upgrade. For me, I'm fine with Win2000 still :D
GolfHacker
05-28-2007, 07:38 AM
Dell and other OEMs are once again offering XP as an option on machines, because people don't like Vista and were choosing not to upgrade their computers. So I think XP is going to be around for a long while yet.