How to automatically uninstall DirectX 9?

Question

I am putting together a WiX installer that includes silently installing DirectX 9:

dxsetup.exe /silent

How do I tell WiX how to un-install DirectX? Is there another switch on the command line?

I need to be able to configure the installer to un-install DirectX automatically, else users complain if they can't uninstall.

Answer 1

For the DirectX End-User Runtime (aka DirectSetup or DXSETUP), it has long been recommended that you don't even try to uninstall it.

In any case, on most versions of Windows you can't 'uninstall' DirectX and running DXSETUP doesn't actually "Install DirectX" either as it's built into the OS. It can only be updated by installing a new version of the OS, installing a Service Pack, or applying a Windows Update. This applies to all versions of Windows starting with Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, and Windows XP x64 Edition.

DXSETUP is still useful for deploying stuff like legacy D3DX9, D3DX10, D3DX11, XACTEngine, XAudio 2.7, XInput 1.3, D3DCompile #43 or earlier, etc. It just doesn't ever install "DirectX".

See No So Direct Setup . If after reading this article you still think you need to run DXSETUP as part of your deployment, you should pick up the latest version of DXSETUP to avoid some potential issues, and trim it down to just those CABs you actually use in your application.