New Utility - DirectX Install Helper Utility (DXInstallHelper)

shaneturner12

Tutorial Creator
Moderators - if this is in the wrong place, please put it in the right place.

Hi Trainzers,

I am pleased to announce my latest mini-utility (or should I say automated utility)

This utility will make the process of downloading and installing DirectX 9.0C (June 2010/April 2011) as easy as running a program.

Features
  • Automatic DirectX unpacking and installation
  • Download progress information
  • Automatic download of the redistributable
  • Can be run directly from the Run/Save prompt
  • Standalone, so no installation needed apart from the DirectX redistributable
Notes
  • This program must be run as administrator - for Windows Vista and 7 (and later versions), this should happen automatically, and a User Account Control box will pop up.
  • This will take approx 30 minutes - 1 hour to complete, due to the nature of the installation
  • The program will silently install DirectX so no further user intervention is required.
  • Due to the program being new, Smartscreen Filter may try to block it. Simply click Actions, then Run Program Anyway.
Attention Norton Users

Due to a problem involving Norton's trust system, users may find that Norton may remove the tool before it can be run. This is a known problem involving other utilities of mine as well, and there is not a lot I can do about it at this point in time. Other antivirus products do not have the same problem.

System Requirements

Windows 2000 or later
.Net Framework 2.0 or later (which you should already have from the Trainz installation)
200MB hard drive space (this is for the DirectX temporary installation files as well as the program and it's log file(s).
Administrator access to be able to write to a temporary subfolder of the C drive.

Problems? Let me know, and be prepared to send the log file(s) from the program's folder.

Comments? Let me know below.

Download Link

At the moment, the tool can only be downloaded from this thread.

Please click here to download the tool.

Shane

P.S. For those who would rather update DirectX manually, see http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?58843-Updating-DirectX-9-0c-how-to-do-it.

EDIT: An unexpected issue has cropped up that did not appear during testing. I will post a message when the problem is resolved.

EDIT EDIT: The problem seems to have been resolved.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: The link is also available on my tutorial website on the Updating DirectX page.
 
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Hi Shane,

Being a person who likes a 'one-click' solution, when it's available, I tried your tool. I'm most impressed. It updated my DX9 in about 5 minutes.

Thanks for your efforts for other Trainz users.
 
Welcome to the forums.

I'm guessing you found my DirectX Install Helper Utility useful gauging by your response. If so, it's always good to hear when someone finds one of my utilities useful, so thank you for your response.

Shane
 
Shane,

Love your stuff... Very usefull and informative.
I am having a problem with patching TS12. I have Windows 7 with DirectX 11. My Content Manager died and I decided to reload TS12 (49922). Trying to install patches has been a problem. My understanding is that I should have all the older versions of DirectX... The install tells me I need version 9 and then aborts. How do I make the installer see my version 9?

Steve
 
If you haven't already, run the DXInstallHelper tool using the link above and wait for that to complete.

Shane

P.S. Welcome to the forums.
 
Shane,
I had to d/l and install dx9 last night. Only took about 10 minutes, you mention 30 min- 1 hour in your first post. Are you allowing for very slow computers ?
frank.

Good idea by the way.
 
Yes - I am taking both slow computers and slow connections into account as the size of the actual redist file is around 100MB.

Shane
 
Another happy and grateful user here, Shane.

Having originally decided to take my old XP PC offline for security reasons last month, I soon realised that it was more of a hassle than I'd predicted, and upgraded it to Win7 yesterday so that I could put it safely back in contact with the web. The DirectX issue raised its head as soon as I tried to access TS12, but thanks to your one-click solution it was all sorted in a matter of minutes.

Would that all problems could be sorted so quickly and easily....

Thanks again,

m
 
Another happy and grateful user here, Shane.

Having originally decided to take my old XP PC offline for security reasons last month, I soon realised that it was more of a hassle than I'd predicted, and upgraded it to Win7 yesterday so that I could put it safely back in contact with the web. The DirectX issue raised its head as soon as I tried to access TS12, but thanks to your one-click solution it was all sorted in a matter of minutes.

Would that all problems could be sorted so quickly and easily....

Thanks again,

m

No problem. Incidentally, I started with writing the manual instructions on how to update DirectX when there were quite a few unable to update to TS2009 build 41844 due to not having the required DirectX version.

After a while, I then decided to make an automated way of doing it (hence this thread), which seems to have worked so far, apart from a few error conditions with certain users which has usually been down to something on their system.

In terms of other automated solutions, I've got a semi automated process with both my Trainz Protocol Changer tool and my Permission Generating Tool. I'm always looking out for opportunities to make other automated tools though.

Shane
 
I had the same problem with "driver d3dx9_42dll" who was lost today after a problem with my PC .
He did'nt start up anymore , problem was "Bootmgr image is corrupt" , i solved it by running a deep scan with "M.Security Essentials" .
Stupid enough i did'nt wright down the virus(?) .

Thanks to your link Shane , driver is back
 
No worries - the DXInstallHelper tool is pretty good at handling that kind of problem (although I haven't got any tools capable of dealing with corrupt boot images).

Shane
 
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