Prerequisites

Hardware

• Microsoft Windows-based computer  - There are no special hardware requirements for this program. It has been tested on Laptop and Desktop computers.
• Sound card or audio interface  - A good quality sound card is strongly recommended (although not required) for best quality sound. DirectX will take advantage of sound card hardware features. This relieves some of the load on the PC system processor.

Software

The following are the required software levels to run the program. Some Microsoft software like DirectX and .Net Framework are NOT installed automatically by Windows Update and may not have been pre-installed by your computer manufacturer. So you may need to download and install them yourself.

See the Installation and Troubleshooting Knowledge Base Verifying and Installing Prerequisites sections for complete instructions and download links.

• Operating System - All versions of Windows® 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP (with Service Pack 3) - x64 (64bit), x86(32bit) and "N" editions for all versions. (with a few exceptions)

• Microsoft DirectX 9.0c - Must be version 9.0c End-User Runtime March 2008 or later. Note: DirectX 10 is NOT a later version of DirectX 9.0c and there are special considerations for DirectX on Windows 7 and Vista.

• Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 - .NET Framework 4 Client Profile (or Full .Net Framework 4.0 ). Do not uninstall previous versions of .Net unless you have a reason to do so. They are meant to reside side by side and you may disable another program by uninstalling a previous version of .Net. The Client Profile is smaller than the Full version and is the recommended package unless you are running the computer as a server.