DirectX is a set of components in Windows that allows software, primarily and especially games, to work directly with your video and audio hardware. Games that use DirectX can use multimedia accelerator features built-in to your hardware more efficiently which improves your overall multimedia experience.

Windows 10. This tool is used to collect info about devices to help troubleshoot problems with DirectX sound and video. A support person might ask for this info, or you might post it in a forum when you ask for help. In Windows, select Start and enter dxdiag into the search box on the taskbar. Select dxdiag from the results.

PC Health Check app brings you up to date info on your Windows device health, helping you take action to improve your device performance and troubleshoot performance problems. It is periodically updated based on customer feedback to help you make the most of your Windows PC. How to open PC Health Check.

If the steps above don't work, you may need to reinstall Windows. For more info, see Windows 10 recovery options. Describes how to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files in Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

Microsoft Defender Antivirus is a powerful tool that finds and removes malware from your PC. Here's how to use it in Windows 10 or 11 to scan your PC. Important: Before you use Microsoft Defender Offline, make sure to save any open files and close apps and programs. Open your Windows Security settings.

Before you begin. Driver updates for Windows, along with many devices, such as network adapters, monitors, printers, and video cards, are automatically downloaded and installed through Windows Update. You probably already have the most recent drivers, but if you'd like to manually update or reinstall a driver, here's how: Update the device driver.

Shrink a basic volume. Change a drive letter. Troubleshoot Disk Management. To open Disk Management, right-click (or long-press) the Start button and select Disk Management. If you need help freeing up space on your PC, see Disk cleanup in Windows or Free up drive space in Windows.

Windows 10. Optimizing your drives can help your PC run smoother and boot up faster. To optimize them: Select the search bar on the taskbar and enter defrag. Select Defragment and Optimize Drives. Select the disk drive you want to optimize. Select the Optimize button. Defragment your Windows 10 PC.

In the search box on the taskbar, type disk cleanup, and select Disk Cleanup from the list of results. Select the drive you want to clean up, and then select OK. Under Files to delete, select the file types to get rid of. To get a description of the file type, select it. Select OK.

Windows 11 Windows 10. If your system is asking you for your BitLocker recovery key, the following information may help you locate your recovery key and understand why you're being asked to provide it. Important: Microsoft support is unable to provide, or recreate, a lost BitLocker recovery key. Where can I find my BitLocker recovery key?