DX8 Fix

Many if not most Windows 95 and 98 users have experienced loss of the IE filter set after upgrading to DirectX 8-8a. Here is a description of the problem and a fix to restore the filter set, which works in many cases. If you are running Windows Millennium, DO NOT DO THIS INSTALL.

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The problem, as described by Microsoft:

DirectX 8 installs the DXTRANS.DLL and DXTMSFT.DLL files on Win95 and Win98 with version numbers higher than those installed by IE 5.5. On these platforms only, problems with DX Transform (filter) functionality will be experienced. The order of original installation is important to possible resolution of this issue.

1. If IE 5.5 was installed first, followed by DirectX 8, uninstallation/reinstallation of IE will restore the pre-DirectX 8 versions of the files saved during the first IE install.

2. With a reversed order of original installation (DirectX 8 first, then IE 5.5), uninstalling/reinstalling IE will not restore the original DX files. In this case, a workaround of uninstalling IE, followed by manually deleting DXTRANS.DLL and DXTMSFT.DLL, followed by reinstalling IE will result in the correct file versions being restored.

An IE update is required to install/reinstall higher versions of these affected DLLs without necessitating IE uninstallation/reinstallation.

DirectX Admin

The solution and fix:

This explains why uninstalling IE and reinstalling IE worked for some but not for others. For those of you that it didn't work for (scenario #2, above), here's a quick and dirty solution which has worked in many cases:


DXTRANS and DXTMSFT DLLs
These files are required to fix filter loss problems after installing DirectX 8-8a on some Windows 98 systems.

Heed these cautions:
Caution#1: If you are running Windows Millennium, 2000, or XP, DO NOT DO THIS INSTALL.
Caution#2: Installing these DLLs DOES NOT fix MetaCreations viewing problems. DON'T DO IT.

1. Download the DirectX 8 DLL's below. They are the correct version of the two DLL's mentioned above.

2. Unzip each file.

3. Save both to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder. Be sure to select YES to overwrite the ones already there.

Download DXTRANS.zip 106k

Download DXTMSFT.zip 159k

Many thanks to Dan for passing on this fix!

Note:

Some people have asked if reinstalling the DXTMETA2.DLL file will fix this problem. In short, no, it won't. DXTMETA2.DLL is only for MetaCreations filters, and has no bearing on the DirectX 8 problem described.


Bill